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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE DOCTRINE 



OF 



JUSTIFICATION. 



BY 



,0^ 

tf. LOY, 






Professor of Theology in the Evangelical Lutheran 
Seminary at Columbus, Ohio, 



dU 3«T \ 



SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED. 

, 




COLUMBUS, O.: 
THE LUTHERAN BOOK CONCERN. 

1882. 






x* 1 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1881, by 

B. H. James, of Baltimore, 

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



The Library 
of Congress 



Washington 



ELECTROTYPED BY 

HARRISON k WHITLOCK 

BALTIMORE. 



\H NOMINE JESU. 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



THE first edition of the book which is here for a 
second time offered to the public was all sold 
within a few years after its publication in 1869. Since 
then the author has frequently been solicited to prepare 
a new edition. Having been assured that the unpre- 
tending volume has done some service in the cause of 
saving truth, and that there is still sufficient demand 
for it to encourage the hope of further salutary fruits, 
he has finally consented to its republication. He hopes 
that the few changes and the additions which he has 
made, will render the work somewhat more worthy of 
the patronage which it has received and increase the 
usefulness at which it aims. May God continue to 
bless the little volume in its new and improved form, 
and render it instrumental in promoting the glory of 
His great name and the welfare of precious souls. 

Columbus, October, 1881. 




PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



THE celebration of the Seventh Jubilee of the 
Reformation has directed the thoughts of many 
Protestants anew to the old paths in which our fathers 
walked, and to the old treasures in which their hearts 
rejoiced. Those paths, which had been by many tra- 
ditionally regarded as crooked and rugged, are found, 
upon a closer view, to be delightfully straight and 
smooth ; and those treasures, which have so often 
been decried as rough and rusty, are seen, upon a 
more careful inspection, to be pure and precious. 
The children are learning to love again what those 
noble heroes of other days deemed passing lovely. 

Among the old treasures of the Church the pure 
doctrine of Justification by Faith holds a conspicuous 
place. It is a pearl, with which not all the wealth of 
the world could have induced the men of the Reform- 
ation to part. It is a garland of rarest flowers, whose 
beauty and fragrance afforded them ever new delight 
iv 



Preface. V 

It is a citadel, within which they felt themselves secure 
against every foe, and for which they fought with a 
vigor and a valor that challenges the admiration of all 
time. The Church could not live and flourish without 
it. She grows weak when she neglects it; she is 
strong when she holds it to her heart. It is the cri- 
terion of her condition. 

When the thoughts of Christians are turned towards 
the stirring times of the Reformation, this cardinal doc- 
trine must necessarily claim a large share of attention. 
It is true, since the days of Luther it has always been 
confessed by the Church which bears his honored name, 
and this confession has been echoed by other Protest- 
ants all over the world. And yet a renewed study of 
the subject seems to us to be a want of the times. 
Doctrines and practices have come into vogue which 
are not in harmony with it, and which a clearer appre- 
hension of it would tend to banish from the Church. 
The Pelagian poison of Romanism is infecting many 
who are most ready to denounce Rome ; and the only 
effectual antidote is the blessed Gospel of the grace 
of God, with its cheering proclamation of the sinner's 
justification through faith alone, without the deeds of 
the law. Only where this doctrine is" understood and 
embraced is the Gospel pure and plain and precious. 

We do not expect to contribute anything materially 
new on this delightful theme. The- truth is old, and 
our aim is to present and illustrate this old truth as 



VI 



Preface. 



the Bible contains it and the Church of the Reforma- 
tion confesses it. If we could render it clearer to the 
minds aud dearer to the -hearts of some who sigh for 
the Consolation of Israel, our ambition would be fully 
satisfied and our labor richly compensated. To this 
end may God bless our humble essay 1 





~s- 



CONTENTS. 



Preface to the Second Edition iii 

Preface to the First Edition " iv 

Introduction I 

Chapter I. — The Nature of Justification 8 

Section i. — Justification not a Declaration defining the Sin- 
ner's Moral Condition 9 

Section 2. — Justification not a Divine Act making the Sinner 

just 13 

Section 3. — Justification a Divine Declaration changing the 

Sinner's Relation to God 24 

Chapter II. — The Ground of Justification 33 

Section 1. — The Ground of Justification not Man's Natural 

Worthiness 35 

Section 2. — The Ground of Justification not any Human Ac- 
quirement 40 

Section 3. — The Ground of Justification is the Grace of God 

and the Merits of Christ. 46 

Chapter III. — The Means of its Bestowal 58 

Section 1. — Justification requires Means to bestow it 59 

Section 2. — The Word of God 66 

Section 3. — The Holy Sacraments 78 

Section 4. — The Divine Bestowal not the Human Possession. 89 

vii 



viii Contents. 

Page. 

Chapter IV, — The Means of its Reception 95 

Section 1. — No Means of Reception besides Faith g§ 

Section 2. — Faith the designated Means of Reception 99 

Section 3. — No Condition to be fulfilled before Faith avails. 108 

Section 4. — The Nature of Justifying Faith 112 

Section 5. — How Faith justifies 123 

Section 6. — Degrees in Faith, but not in Justification 130 

Chapter V. — Its Effects , 143 

Section 1.— It gives the Conscience Peace 144 

Section 2. — It secures Sanctification 153 

Section j. — It renders Glory to God 158 

Conclusion x§2 




INTRODUCTION. 



WHEN, in answer to the troubled question, "What 
must I do to be saved?" the inspired preachers 
of the everlasting Gospel said, "Believe on the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved," a way of deliv- 
erance from sin and death was shown, of which Nature 
gives no information. The question is one which has 
occupied the thoughts of earnest men in all ages of the 
world. Since sin has entered into the world, and death 
by sin, human hearts have trembled at the doom which 
was felt to be impending, and human reason has been un- 
able to find a way of escape. "We speak the wisdom of 
God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God 
ordained before the world unto our glory ; which none of 
the princes of this world knew." (j Cor, ii. 7, 8.) They 
groped in darkness after "the unknown God," and blindly 
sought, in impossible ways, deliverance from the burden 
of sin. Natural religion furnishes no ground of hope, 
and brings to the troubled conscience no words of peace. 
The Gospel alone supplies the want of groaning humanity 
and offers the remedy for its deadly spiritual disease ; and 
of this Gospel the sum and substance is justification by 
faith through Jesus' blood. "I am not ashamed of the 
Gospel of Christ: for it is the power ot God unto salva- 



2 Introduction. 

tion to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also 
to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God 
revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall 
live by faith." {Rom. i. 16, 17.) "All things are of God, 
who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and 
hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation ; to wit, that 
God was in Christ, reconciling the w r orld unto Himself, 
not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath com- 
mitted unto us the Word of reconciliation. Now then we 
are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech 
you by us : we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye recon- 
ciled to God. For He hath made Him to be sin for us, 
Who knew no sin ; that we might be made the righteous- 
ness of God in Him." {2 Cor. v. 18-21.) 

This great doctrine of the sinner's justification by faith 
in the Redeemer of the world, who lived and suffered and 
died to save our lost race, is the very soul of the super- 
natural revelation given in Holy Scripture. But it is, 
therefore, also the doctrine against which the attacks of 
Satan are mainly directed, and against which the world 
and the flesh most obstinately array themselves. "After 
that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not 
God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to 
save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and 
the Greeks seek after wisdom: but we preach Christ 
crucified — unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the 
Greeks foolishness ; but unto them which are called, both 
Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the 
wisdom of God." (7 Cor. i. 21-24.) Satan in his malice 
hates the Saviour, as he hates the salvation of man, whose 
ruin ke has compassed; and man in his pride despises the 
gracious plan which divine wisdom has formed for his de- 
liverance, because that plan gives no credit to his genius 
for devising nor to his power for executing it. Human 
reason and human inclination are therefore always, in their 



Int7'odu£lion. 3 

natural state, averse to the doctrine of Justification by 
faith. Hence it is no wonder that earth and hell combine 
in persistent efforts to banish it from the Church and from 
the world. 

It was this doctrine that formed the center of the whole 
controversy in the glorious Reformation of the XVI. Cen- 
tury, and upon the maintenance of which Luther's whole 
work depended. Both in regard to doctrine and to life it 
forms the sum of the whole evangelical system. There- 
fore the Evangelical Church, in opposition to the natural- 
istic corruptions of Rome, declares in the Apology of the 
Augsburg Confession: "Since this controversy concerns 
the principal and most important article of the whole 
Christian doctrine, so that very much depends upon this 
article, which also chiefly serves to a clear, correct under- 
standing of the entire Hgly Scriptures, and alone shows 
the way to the unspeakable treasure and the true knowl- 
edge of Christ; yea, which 'is the only key to the whole 
Bible, and without which the poor conscience can have no 
true, constant, certain hope, nor understand the riches of 
Christ's grace: — we pray your Imperial Majesty gra- 
ciously to hear us, as the case requires, concerning these 
great, grave, and all-important matters. For as our ad- 
versaries do not understand or know what is meant in 
the Scriptures by forgiveness of sins, by faith, by grace, 
by righteousness, they have miserably defiled this noble, 
indispensable, and principal article, without which no one 
can know Christ; they have entirely suppressed the ex- 
alted, precious treasure of the knowledge of Christ, or 
of what Christ and what His kingdom and grace are, 
and have wretchedly robbed poor consciences of this 
great and noble treasure and everlasting consolation, upon 
which everything depends." (Art. iv. 2, 3.) Furthermore, 
in the Smalcald Articles the Church declares in reference 
to "the chief article" of Justification: "Whatever may 



4 Introduction. 

happen, though heaven and earth should fall, nothing in 
this article can be yielded or rescinded. 'For there is 
none other name under heaven given among men whereby 
we must be saved,' says St. Peter {AEls iv. 12); 'and with 
His stripes we are healed.' (/y. liii. 5.) Upon this article 
rests all that we teach and do against the pope, the devil, 
and all the world. We must therefore be entirely certain 
of this, and not doubt it ; otherwise all will be lost, and 
the pope and the devil and all that opposes, will prevail 
and obtain the victory." (Part II., Art. i.) 

Luther in many places gives expression to his deep 
conviction and intense appreciation of the importance 
which attaches to this cardinal doctrine. With him, as 
with all the children of God who have found peace in be- 
lieving, it was not a beautiful speculative theory, but a 
question of the everlasting salvation of millions of per- 
ishing souls. Dying men are justified by faith, or they 
are not justified at all. They are saved through Christ, 
or they perish forever. If this doctrine of Justification is 
abandoned, all is lost; with it Christianity falls, and the 
world goes down in everlasting woe. It is the article 
with which the Church stands or falls. Commenting on 
Genesis xxi. 17, Luther says of Justification: "This is 
the principal article of our faith. If this be set aside, as 
is done by the Jews, or be corrupted, as is done by the 
papists, the Church cannot continue, neither can the glory 
of God be maintained, which consists in this, that He is 
merciful, and that for the sake of His Son He forgives 
sins and bestows salvation." (Erl. Lat., v. 137.) Again, 
he says on Galatians ii. 11 : "As I have before said, Paul 
has here in hand no indifferent trifle, but the highest 
article ot all Christian doctrine. To him who rightly un- 
derstands the utility and majesty of this article all other 
things will seem vile and worthless. For in comparison 
with this article of Justification, what are Peter and Paul, 



Intro dttflion. 5 

what are an angel from heaven or all creatures ? If we 
know this, we have the clearest light : if we are ignorant 
of it, we are in the densest darkness. Wherefore, if you 
see this article impugned or defaced, fear not to resist 
either St. Peter or an angel from heaven; for it cannot 
be sufficiently magnified and extolled." (Jb. i. 159.) In 
his Commentary \ on John vi. 53, he says of Justification 
by faith: "Where this article remains in our pulpits there 
is no danger: we are safe against heretics and errors. 
This article suffers no error to be associated with it ; the 
Holy Ghost is also present where it is, and those who 
believe it tolerate no error. If they are led astray, it is a 
sure sign that they did not understand this article: if they 
had rightly apprehended it, they would not have been de- 
ceived. All other doctrines, even if the words are spoken 
which we use, are of nothing but good works; as our 
factious spirits, when examined in the light, teach only of 
good works, and do not understand that life, grace, and 
salvation come without our work through faith." (Erl., 
xlviii. 18.) 

This cardinal doctrine, whose importance cannot be 
over-estimated, the Lutheran Church has always joyfully 
confessed and patiently taught, to the glory of the Re- 
deemer and the welfare of the redeemed. And there is 
need that this should be continued. Many are slow to 
learn it, and those who zealously study it and meditate 
upon it find that its marvelous wisdom is not so easily 
mastered. It is no indication of thorough acquaintance 
with the doctrine, in all its import and bearings, to speak 
of it as a simple lesson for children merely. Children 
may learn it, and be happy in its sunshine; but mature 
minds may study it with ever-increasing light. Luther 
apprehended the doctrine with a clearness and preached 
it with a power that had no equal since the days of 
St. Paul ; and yet he says : "When you hear an unripe 



6 Introduction. 

saint boasting that he knows quite well we* must be saved 
by grace, without works, and pretending that this is for 
him an easy art, you may be sure that he knows not 
whereof he affirms, and perhaps will never experience it. 
For it is not an art which can be perfectly mastered, or 
which we can boast of having learned: it is an art that 
insists on being master, and requires us to remain pupils. 
And those who rightly understand it do not boast that 
they know all about it; but they perceive something of 
it, as a pleasant odor, which they eagerly pursue, which 
they wonder at, but which they cannot comprehend or 
fully possess as they desire; they hunger and thirst and 
pant for it, with ever-increasing longing, and can never 
get enough of hearing and handling it, — as St. Paul him- 
self confesses that he had not yet attained it, and 
Christ pronounces those blessed who hunger and thirst 
after righteousness — Mat. v." (Erl., xl. 325.) 

Let us not, then, suppose that the old theme contains 
nothing to which we could yet profitably give earnest 
attention. Many, it is to be feared, have not yet so far 
entered its beautiful garden as to experience its delights. 
To them it will be a blessing to enter and behold the 
wonders which God hath wrought, and taste that He is 
gracious. Those who have had a taste of these heavenly 
sweets will be glad of any contribution, however small, to 
the stock of that knowledge which is their daily strength 
and comfort and joy. May the Holy Spirit lead us into 
all truth as it is in Jesus our Righteousness, and by the 
truth make us free ! 

Justification is the gracious acl: of God by which He 
declares the sinner righteous, removing the sentence of 
condemnation and imputing to him a perfect holiness. 
The cause of this declaration cannot be the sinner's wor- 
thiness ; for then he would not be a sinner. We can find 
the ground of God's act only in His abounding grace, 



Introduction. 7 

which seeks the welfare of men, even though they have, 
by their iniquity, forfeited all claims upon the divine 
blessing, and in the merits of Jesus, whom that grace has 
sent into the world to atone for human sin. Our partici- 
pation in the benefits of this atonement does not grow out 
of our inheritance of human nature ; for that would involve 
the actual salvation of all men, in direct contradiction to 
the Scriptures : nor are we justified by a divine act which 
takes place in the distant realms of heaven without reach- 
ing the souls of men, whose salvation it is designed to 
secure; for that would exclude the necessity, so often 
urged in the Scriptures, of repentance and of faith in the 
Gospel. There must be a medium of communicating with 
the sinner, and the Bible points us to the means of grace 
as God's merciful institution to effect such communication. 
But the conveyance of grace, and the publication of a 
cheering declaration, would be of no avail to us unless we 
appropriated them as our own; and such appropriation 
can, according to the Scriptures, be made only by faith. 
The believer does not stand in doubting expectation of 
some miraculous occurrence by which he shall know him- 
self justified ; but he appropriates the merits of Christ 
in all their fullness, and thus has peace in believing, is 
thoroughly furnished unto all good works, in which he 
abounds to the glory of God, and 'knows himself to be an 
heir of Heaven through Christ. Such a joyful child of 
God earnestly guards against every form of error that 
would tarnish the purity of the precious doctrine of Justi- 
fication. 

These propositions we propose in the following essay 
to elucidate. We shall, accordingly, in presenting the 
great Doctrine of Justification, treat of: I. Its Nature; 
II. Its Ground; III. The Means of its Bestowal; IV. 
The Means of its Appropriation; and V. Its Effects. 




i Dwtrin* of Knatifir atim 



CHAPTER I. 
THE NATURE OF JUSTIFICATION. 



HOW shall man, the miserable sinner and child of 
wrath by nature, be justified before his God? He 
cannot justify himself: his iniquity is inexcusable, his dam- 
nation is just. Yet the Scriptures not only speak of a 
justification, but make it the very heart of the Christian 
revelation. Without it not a soul could be saved from 
the eternal death which is the sinner's due and doom. 
Man cannot justify himself before God ; but it does not 
follow that justification is impossible. "It is God that 
justifieth." He declares "at this time His righteousness: 
that He might be just, and the justifier of him that be- 
lieveth in Jesus." {Rom. iii. 26.) Wherein this divine act 
consists it behooves us all to understand. 

Justification may be conceived as a declaration of God 
by which the sinner's moral condition is designated. Or, 
it may be thought an exercise of divine power by which 
an intrinsic change is wrought in the sinner. Or, finally, 



Its Nature, 9 

it may be considered a divine declaration by which the 
transgressor is brought into a new relation to his God. 
A glance at each of these propositions will suffice to secure 
the conviction that there is a material divergence in the 
views which they express. An examination of the Scrip- 
tures will make it manifest that the last alone contains the 
Biblical truth concerning the nature of Justification, while 
the other two, though popular, are pernicious forms of 
error. 

Section i. 

JUSTIFICATION NOT A DECLARATION DEFINING THE SINNER'S 
MORAL CONDITION. 

St. Paul declares {Rom. iii. 23-25) : "All have sinned 
and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely 
by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ 
Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation 
thfough faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness 
for the remission of sins that are past, through the for- 
bearance of God." 

From this it is evident, in the first place, that the per- 
son to be justified is a sinner. Any declaration, therefore, 
which is designed to indicate his true moral condition, 
must imply his sinfulness. No other could be in harmony 
with the fact. God could not, if the purpose were to give 
a correct representation of the sinner's actual state, pro- 
nounce him just; for this would be simply asserting that 
he is not a sinner, and thus directly contradicting the 
plain truth. 

In the Epistle to the Romans, in which the doctrine of 
Justification by faith is expressly and fully set forth and 
explained, St. Paul begins his exposition by showing 
that the whole world is under condemnation because of 
sin, and that, therefore, there can be no salvation except 



io Justification. 

in Christ. Jews and Gentiles alike are represented as 
having departed from God and become utterly corrupt. 
"There is no difference; for all have sinned and come 
short of the glory of God." {Rom. iii. 22, 23.) There is 
not a just person among the children of men. "The 
whole world lieth in wickedness.' (z Johnx. 19.) It is 
the poor publican who smites upon his breast and prays, 
"God be merciful to me a sinner," that is justified; not 
the proud Pharisee who thanks God that he is not sinful, 
like other people. The righteousness of God by faith 
presupposes the unrighteousness of man, to whom it is to 
be imputed. It is the unjust person that is justified by 
the grace of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. "The Scrip- 
ture hath concluded ail under sin, that the promise by 
faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe." 
{Gal. iii. 22.) 

Hence it is clear that justification is not the expression 
of a divine judgment in reference to the moral condition 
of its object. This could be no justification at all; because 
the person to whom the judgment refers, is unjust in fact, 
and could not, without a gross violation of truth, be pro- 
nounced, with reference to his moral state, otherwise than 
unjust. 

Secondly, such a view of justification, is in conflict with 
the statement that this act of God takes place freely, by 
His grace, and through. His forbearance. For it requires 
no condescending mercy to predicate of man what is justly 
his due. If he were just, it would be no manifestation of 
grace to declare him just. If he \\4ere not a sinner, there 
would be no divine forbearance needed to refrain from 
pronouncing sentence of condemnation upon him. If he 
were righteous, there would be a moral necessity for rec- 
ognizing him as such, and no propriety in the use of the 
word "freely" in connection with such recognition. That 
we are justified "freely" implies that there is nothing in 



Its Nature, 1 1 

us which could furnish God a motive for declaring us just. 
That we are justified "by His grace" implies that the 
cause is in God alone, who pities us in our lost estate. 
That we are justified "through 'the forbearance of God" 
implies that there is abundant reason to condemn us, but 
that divine mercy triumphs over justice in setting the 
sinner free. It would be trampling upon the words of 
Scripture Jo assume that justification is an ac~l which 
merely gives man his due. That which is due to him 
is eternal damnation. "The wages of sin is death; but 
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our 
Lord." {Rom. vi. 23.) When a sinner is justified, he 
receives what is not his due : he is unjust, but is declared 
just, freely, by the grace of God. 

Thirdly, the righteousness, in view of which the sinner 
is declared just, is represented as one which is not in- 
herent in him and does not belong to his moral condition. 
For it is asserted to be the righteousness of God — a 
righteousness which God alone bestows, and which alone 
avails before Him. And, to guard against any misunder- 
standing, it is further affirmed that this righteousness is 
"without the law" {Rom. iii. 21), and that "by the deeds 
of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight." 
{lb. 20.) If man's moral condition were righteous, he 
might, indeed, be pronounced righteous, — but not in view 
of "the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus 
Christ" {lb. 22), and not "without the deeds of the law." 
The law requires him to be righteous ; but he has failed 
to comply with the requirement: therefore God justifies 
him freely, by His grace, on the ground of a righteousness 
which belongs to another. Justification would be by the 
righteousness of man, not by the righteousness of God, 
and by the deeds of the law, wherein such human right- 
eousness consists, if it were merely a declaration attributing 
to man what he really possesses. But by the law is the 



1 2 Justification. 

knowledge of sin. It does not secure the holiness which 
it demands, but shows man his transgression. " If there 
had been a law given which could have given life, verily 
righteousness should have been by the law." {Gal. iii. 21.) 
But as this is spiritual, and man is carnal, it can only 
condemn. Man is unrighteous, and therefore needs the 
justification which God bestows without the law, on the 
ground of another's righteousness. 

Finally, the sinner is justified "through the redemption 
which is in Christ Jesus." He is declared just on other 
grounds than those of his moral qualities. His justi- 
fication rests on the person and work of another. He is 
declared righteous not because he is so, but because the 
righteousness of the Redeemer avails for him. He is not 
sinless; but the merits of Christ, who knew no sin, are 
imputed to him. He is sinful ; but he has the remission 
of sins through faith in Jesus' blood. If justification were 
a declaration which is designed merely to announce a 
divine judgment respecting the actual state of the sinner, 
the statement that it takes place "through the redemption 
which is in Christ Jesus" would be inconsistent with its 
import; for then it would involve the assumption that 
every condition of justification is fulfilled by man himself, 
whilst St. Paul proclaims that its great condition is the 
redemptive work of Christ. If we are justified through 
the merits of our Saviour, it cannot be through a right- 
eousness of our own, which would enable us to dispense 
with His merits : and if we have no righteousness of our 
own, justification cannot consist in declaring that we have. 
God cannot make a declaration annulling His Word and 
rendering the life and death of His Son superfluous. But 
that Word declares that all men have transgressed and 
are under the condemnation of the law; wherefore "he 
that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath 
of God abideth on him." (Jo/m iii. 36.) Our Lord was 



Its Nature. 13 

made of a woman and made under the law, that He might 
take our curse upon Himself and fulfill all righteousness 
in our stead. "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse 
of the law, being made a curse for us." (Gat. iii. 13.) He 
who is justified, is a' sinner — not a just person — and his 
justification is effected through the redemption which is 
in Christ Jesus, who died for the ungodly and thus se- 
cured for them remission of sin. 

The denial of the proposition that justification is a 
divine declaration which simply asserts what the justified 
person's moral state has been found to be, seems to many 
to involve the doctrine in difficulties. It is fancied that 
God is thus represented as making a declaration which is 
not in harmony with the fact : He declares a person just 
who is undeniably unjust. Such difficulties vanish, how- 
ever, when the light of truth shines in on the soul. We 
trust that the groundlessness of the objection will be clear 
as we proceed. Suffice it for the present to state, that the 
declaration of God is in complete accordance with the 
facts when the sinner is justified. The unrighteous person 
is righteous; but the righteousness is not his own: he has 
the righteousness of God by faith, through the redemp- 
tion in Christ Jesus. 



Section 2. . 

JUSTIFICATION NOT A DIVINE ACT MAKING THE SINNER JUST, 

One of the most prevalent errors in regard to justifi- 
cation is the opinion that it consists in an intrinsic change 
which God, by an exercise of His power, works in the 
sinner. This error is as dangerous as it is common, per- 
verting the order of salvation and depriving the soul of 
its dearest solace. It is important that its unscriptural 



i . Justification. 

character be well understood. To this end attention is 
invited to the following considerations. 

First, the Holy Scriptures, frequently as they speak of 
justification and commend its comfort to the soul, in no 
instance represent it as a divine act changing, as it were 
by physical force, the moral nature of man. They often 
mention the imputation of the Saviour's righteousness, 
and the non-imputation of the sinner's iniquity, as iden- 
tical with justification ; but never do they assert that this 
consists in rendering the unjust person intrinsically just. 
They never intimate that that which constitutes its nature 
is the supposed infusion of the Redeemer's righteousness 
into the sinner. They are silent about the imaginary utter 
destruction of the flesh in justification, and the fancied 
creation of a sinless spiritual being, by an exercise of om- 
nipotence. If the opinion in question were a divine truth, 
and not a human error, this silence of Scripture respect- 
ing so important an element in the nature of justification 
would be 'unaccountable. Its reception as part of the 
Christian faith — notwithstanding such silence — would 
involve us in other errors of the gravest import. It 
would be admitting the claim of Rome that the Scriptures 
are not the only fountain whence articles of faith must be 
derived, and are not the only rule of that faith; and it 
would be assuming the blasphemous position that God, 
in the very article which forms the heart of the Christian 
system, and in the very point upon which all consolation 
for the sighing soul depends, left man to grope in dark- 
ness and in wretchedness, vainly endeavoring by nature to 
supply the radical deficiency of revelation. 

It is true that Christ dwells in our hearts by faith and 
directs them in the way of holiness ; but this truth has its 
proper place in the article of our sanctification, not in that 
of our justification. It is entirely irrelevant to introduce it 
into the latter, and those who persist in such irrelevancy 



Its Nature 15 

fall under the condemnation of St. Peter's words, who, 
speaking of St. Paul's writings, says: "In which are some 
things hard to be understood, which they that are un- 
learned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other 
Scriptures, unto their own destruction." (2 Peter iii. 16.) 
For it is by no means a matter of indifference whether 
the moral change, which must confessedly take place in 
the sinner, be referred to his justification or to his sancti- 
fication. Both are acts of God, indeed, and both are 
necessary. But their end is not identical, and their iden- 
tification involves the interchange of predicates peculiar 
to each, which introduces confusion into the whole plan 
of salvation and banishes all peace from the sinner's soul. 
To the justified person old things certainly pass away and 
all things become new: he walks not after the flesh, but 
after the Spirit. We have no desire to conceal this truth 
from the reader's view. But this change forms no part 
of justification, and is never spoken of in the Word of 
God as if it did. "Although the converted and believing 
have incipient renovation, sanctification, charity, love, and 
good works, these cannot, and must not, and dare not be 
referred to the article of justification before God and con- 
founded with it, in order that Christ, our Redeemer, may 
not be deprived of His glory, and troubled consciences 
may not, since our new obedience is imperfect and impure, 
be robbed of their abiding consolation." {Form. Conc. y 

&• 350 

Secondly, it is, in the nature of things, impossible that 
man should love God and his neighbor, and thus become 
intrinsically righteous, before he believes the love which 
God has to us. This would require a change m his 
nature which would be tantamount to an utter destruction 
of his sinful self, and the creation of a new person not 
identical with the former. For as long as he is conscious 
of his sinfulness- and recognizes the denunciations of 



1 6 yustification. 

God's wrath upon him on account of it, but has no 
knowledge of an atonement, or no confidence in it, he 
can only hate his Maker; "because the carnal mind is 
enmity against God." Hence the Holy Spirit declares : 
" You, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your 
mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled." 
(CoL i. 21.) Hence, too, it is said that "the law worketh 
wrath" {Rom. iv. 15), revealing God's hatred of sin and 
man's hatred of God. The first step towards an actual 
change in the moral condition of the sinner is to "repent 
and believe the Gospel." But this faith implies the as- 
surance of an atonement accomplished, and of divine 
grace toward the sinner on the ground of this atonement, 
as this is proclaimed in the Gospel. Through the mercy 
of God forgiveness of sins is preached for man's appro- 
priation. If he believes not the tidings, his heart remains 
at enmity with God, and intrinsic holiness is impossible. 
If he believes them, God ceases to be to his .mind a 
hateful object, and his enmity ceases; on the other hand, 
he loves God, and the work of san£tification has com- 
menced. For "herein is love, not that we loved God, 
but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitia- 
tion for our sins. And we have known and believed the 
love that God hath for us. We love Him because He 
first loved us." (7 John iv. 10, 16, 19.) 

It is therefore evident that before there can be any 
intrinsic holiness there must be that faith which has the 
promise of salvation without it. The former cannot be a 
part of justification, because it can exist only when this 
has preceded it. Faith in the Gospel is the appropriation 
of pardon ; and to speak of man's being rendered sinless 
in his justification, that he may receive remission of sin, is 
simply absurd, justification is the indispensable condition 
of sanctification ; and those who teach that we must be 
sanctified in order to be justified, or that to be justified 



Its Nature. 17 

means to be sanctified, teach solecisms. Hence the Re- 
formers declared: "Our opponents also make the silly 
assertion that man, guilty of eternal wrath, merits remis- 
sion of sin by acts of love, although it is impossible to 
love God before faith has apprehended the remission of 
sins. For the heart that truly feels the wrath of God 
cannot love Him, unless He be shown to be reconciled 
While He terrifies us and threatens to consign us to 
eternal death, human nature must be disheartened and 
can experience no spark of love toward an angry God, 
who denounces condemnation and punishment against it, 
until He Himself administer comfort. It is easy for idle 
and inexperienced persons to indulge in such dreams 
about love, as though a person who is even guilty of 
mortal sin could love God above all things; for they 
know not what a burden sin is, and what wretchedness it 
>s to feel the wrath of God. But pious souls, who have 
experienced the agony of conscience and the conflict with 
Satan, know the vanity of such philosophical specula- 
tions." (Apol. Con/., ii., 36, 37.) 

Thirdly, justification cannot consist in an intrinsic 
change of the unjust into a just person, because the jus- 
tified sinner is a sinner still. This is evidenced by the 
consciousness of every Christian the voice of whose expe- 
rience has not been stifled by some unscriptural theory. 
There are those, indeed, who claim sinless perfection ; 
and it is not for us to judge therri by pronouncing it 
absolutely impossible that there should be children of 
God among them. But they must be blind indeed who 
perceive nothing in the impulses and inclinations of their 
hearts that contravenes the law of God. They may not 
deem it sinful, because they have very imperfect views of 
the nature of sin. They may hold concupiscence to be 
innocent so long as it does not break forth in wicked 
words and works. They may think the depravity which 
1** B 



1 8 Justification, 

spreads its venom over their whole nature, and which 
presents itself to the consciousness with such frequency 
in thoughts and feelings and volitions, is not damnable. 
But it cannot be that they are never conscious of any 
such operations as the Bible declares to be sin, whether 
their sinfulness be recognized or not. 

Those who glorify their Saviour by trusting in Him 
alone — exalting Him the more, the more they feel their 
own depravity — with one accord testify that their own 
experience declares them sinful still, though they have the 
peace of God which passeth understanding, "being jus- 
tified freely by His grace." The holiest men that have 
ever lived thus gave Jesus all the praise of their salvation. 
"Let no man therefore despair," says Luther, "if he feel 
the flesh oftentimes to stir up new battle against the 
Spirit, or if he cannot at once subdue the flesh and make 
it obedient to the Spirit. I also do wish myself to have a 
more valiant and constant heart, which might be able not 
only boldly to contemn the threatenings of tyrants, the 
heresies, offenses, and tumults which Satan and his sol- 
diers, the enemies of the Gospel, stir up ; but also might 
shake off the vexations and anguish of spirit, and not 
fear the sharpness of death, but receive and embrace it as 
a most friendly guest. But I find another law in my 
members, rebelling against the law of my mind." {Com. 
on Gal., p. 574.) 

And this experience is perfectly coincident with the 
teachings of Scripture, which declares the justified person 
free from guilt at the same time that it pronounces his 
nature sinful. Thus, while it is stated, on the one hand, 
that "there is no condemnation to them which are in 
Christ Jesus" {Rom, viii. 1), and that "the blood of Jesus 
Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin" (j John i. 7), it 
is emphatically proclaimed, on the other, " If we say that 
we have no sin we deceive, ourselves, and the truth is not 



Its Nature. 19 

in us" ^i John i. 8), and "The flesh lusteth against the 
Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh : and these are con- 
trary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things 
that ye would" (Gal. v. 17). There has, indeed, been a 
theory devised for divesting the latter class of passages of 
their force. They have been represented as referring to 
man in his natural state, before justification has taken 
place, and, therefore, as being irrelevant to the question 
before us ; but those who are willing to examine the mat- 
ter for themselves will not be deceived by such groundless 
theories. In the words "if we say that we have no sin," 
the subject "we," whether we refer it to Christians or to 
all men, must in any case include Christians, as it includes 
St. John. Moreover, in man's natural state the Spirit 
does not lust against the flesh, and there is neither will 
nor ability to perform that which is good, but both for 
that which is evil ; so that there can be no contrariety. 

Dr. Luther says on the passage from St. Paul: "These 
two captains or leaders; the flesh and the Spirit, are one 
against the other in your body, so that ye cannot do what 
ye would. And this place plainly bears witness that Paul 
writes these things to the faithful; that is, to the Church 
believing in Christ, baptized, justified, renewed, and having 
full forgiveness of sins. Still he says that she has the 
flesh rebelling against the Spirit. After the same manner 
he speaks of himself in Romans vii. : ■ I am carnal, sold 
under sin,' and ' I see another law in my members, rebell- 
ing against the law of my mind, and leading me captive 
unto the law of sin which is in my members.' And again, 
*0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from 
the body of this death?' Here not only the schoolmen, 
but also some of the old Fathers, are much troubled, 
seeking how they may excuse Paul; for it seems to them 
absurd and unseemly to say that the chosen vessel of 
Christ should have sin. But we credit Paul's own words, 



20 Justification. 

wherein he plainly confesses that he is sold under sin, 
that he is led captive of sin, that he has a law in his 
members rebelling against him, and that with the flesh he 
serves the law of sin. Here again they answer that the 
apostie speaks in the person of the wicked. But the 
wicked do not complain of the rebellion of their flesh, of 
any battle or conflict, or of the captivity and bondage of 
sin; for in them sin reigns mightily. This is, therefore, 
the very complaint of Paul and of all the faithful, — and 
those have done very wickedly who have thought it 
necessary to excuse Paul and exonerate the faithful from 
having sin ; for by this notion, which proceeds from 
ignorance of the doctrine of faith, they have robbed the 
Church of a strong consolation : they have abolished for- 
giveness of sins, and made Christ of none efTe6t. 

"It is very profitable for the godly to know this and 
to bear it well in mind; for it wonderfully comforts them 
when they are tempted. When I was a monk I thought 
I was utterly cast away, if at any time I felt the lust of the 
flesh; that is, if I felt any evil motion, carnal lust, wrath, 
hatred, or envy against any brother. I essayed many 
ways to help and to quiet my conscience, but in vain; 
for the concupiscence and lust of my flesh would always 
return, so that I could not rest, but was continually vexed 
with these thoughts : this or that sin thou hast committed, 
thou art infected with envy, with impatience and such 
other sins; therefore, thou hast entered into this holy 
order in vain, and all thy good works are unprofitable. If 
I had then rightly understood these sentences of St. Paul, 
I should not have so miserably tormented myself, but 
should have thought and said to myself, as I commonly 
do now : Martin, thou shalt not be utterly without sin, for 
thou hast flesh ; thou shalt therefore feel the battle there- 
of, according to that saying of Paul, 'the flesh lusteth 
against the Spirit.' Despair not, therefore, but resist it 



Its Nature, 21 

strongly, and fulfill not the lust thereof. Thus doing 
thou art not under the law. 

"Hereby we may see who are the very saints indeed. 
They are not stocks and stones, as the monks and school- 
men dream, so that they are never moved with anything, 
never feel any lust or desires of the flesh: but as Paul 
saith, their flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and, therefore, 
they have sin. And the xxxii. Psalm witnesses that the 
faithful do confess their unrighteousness, and pray that 
the wickedness of their sin may be forgiven, where it 
says: 'I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; 
and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. For this shall 
every one that is godly pray unto Thee.' Moreover, the 
whole Church, which indeed is holy, prays that her sins 
may be forgiven her and believes the forgiveness of sins. 
And in Psalm cxliii. David prays : ' Enter not into judg- 
ment with Thy servant; for in Thy sight shall no man 
living be justified,' and in Psalm cxxx.: 'If Thou, Lord, 
shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But 
there is forgiveness with Thee.' Thus do the chief saints 
and children of God speak and pray, as David, Paul, &c." 

(JK 575-579.) 

The Word of God and the experience of Christendom 
thus concur in bearing testimony to the truth, that those 
who are justified are still partakers of sinful human nature, 
not intrinsically sinless. The Roman Church and those 
Protestant denominations who follow in its erring foot- 
steps are manifestly contending against God's Word in 
their advocacy of the doctrine that Christians reach, here 
below, the heights of perfection in which they have no 
sin — a doctrine that is well calculated to make hypocrites 
and to drive serious souls into despair. But if justified 
persons still have sin. justification cannot consist in ren- 
dering them intrinsically sinless. 

Finally, the acceptance of this doctrine would render 



2 2 Justified tion. 

it impossible for the soul to arrive at that peace which the 
Saviour left as a precious legacy to His disciples. {John 
xiv. 27.) The consciousness of sin remains in the souls 
of honest Christians who adhere to the Scriptures and 
examine themselves. But if justification is held to consist 
in an intrinsic change, by which the whole sinful nature 
is destroyed, the conclusion is inevitable that there can be 
no justification where there is such a consciousness. Rest 
for such souls can nowhere be found, and is usually 
sought by them in a pharisaical delusion. He who knows 
that the wages of sin is death, and knows of no deliver- 
ance save through sinlessness, must deceive himself by 
fancying that he has no sin, or stand in trembling expect- 
ancy of the day of wrath. No doubt many a burdened 
soul has been driven into despair by this doctrine, which 
is as comfortless as it is false. Those who are not led by 
it into puffed-up self-righteousness which, proudly pre- 
tending that it has no sin, thanks God that it is not like 
other men, will be forced to the other extreme of suppos- 
ing that, since they are not free from stains, they cannot 
be justified and there is no hope for them. Wherein 
should they hope, if there is no righteousness for them 
but that which is inherent in themselves, and which, in 
the best case, they feel to be very imperfect and coupled 
with much that is vile and damnable? What should give 
them comfort when, on account of their sin, they see 
nothing in prospect for them but the eternal burning? 
Justification can give no peace, if it only confirms the 
claims of the law, and takes place only when the sinner 
has performed the impossibility of satisfying these claims. 
But it does bring peace, it does afford consolation. "Be- 
ing justified by faith, we have peace with God through 
our Lord Jesus Christ." {Rom. v. 1.) The discouraging 
figment that we are justified by an infusion of holiness, or 
by the acquisition of spotless sanctity through our own 



Its Nature. 23 

efforts, which introduces unrest wherever souls are sincere 
and brings comfort only to the Pharisee, bears no resem- 
blance to the cheering biblical doctrine of justification. 
No abiding consolation can be found as long as sinners 
are directed to rest their salvation upon an inherent holi- 
ness. The weight of sin is too heavy to remain long 
unfelt. The conscience will not be lulled to rest by a song 
so discordant. When times of earnest conflict come with 
sin and death, no fair delusions will calm the breast, beau- 
tiful as they may seem while there is nothing to disturb 
its quiet. Then God's truth must support us, or we fall. 
Then a righteousness without the deeds of the law is re- 
quisite to give us peace: a righteousness which excludes 
all boasting and bids us glory only in the Cross. Expe- 
rience alone is not a safe guide in spiritual things: we 
must not use it as an absolute test of divine truth. But 
when the Word of God and our heart's experience co- 
incide, it would be as stupid as it is impious to reject or 
neglect their teaching. And the Word of God and the 
experience of the heart do unite their testimony to the 
truth, that no peace is found in reliance upon our own 
righteousness, but that it is found in the imputed right- 
eousness of Jesus Christ. The doctrine that justification 
consists in an intrinsic change, by which the sinner is ren- 
dered sinless, is false, because it contradicts the truth that 
justification affords comfort and peace. 

It is but another form of this dangerous error, when it 
is taught, as was done by Osiander shortly after Luther's 
death and is still done by some who profess to reject the 
theory of creature merit, as preached and practiced in the 
Romish Church, that by God's indwelling in our hearts 
all sin is eradicated, so that Christ is our righteousness 
according to His divine nature. As this sets aside the 
merits secured by our Saviour for us through His active 
and passive obedience to the law, and virtually identifies 



2\ Justification. 

justification with sanctification, the Formula of Concord 
justly condemns it as an error that endangers souls. We 
are justified not by the essential righteousness of the Son 
of God, but by the righteousness which He acquired for 
us by His perfect fulfillment of the law in our stead. " For 
although God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, who is 
the eternal and essential righteousness, dwells by faith in 
the elect, who are justified through Christ and reconciled 
to God, (for all Christians are temples of God the Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost, who also moves them to do the 
right,) yet this indwelling of God is not that righteous- 
ness of faith concerning which St. Paul speaks and which 
he calls the righteousness of God, on account of which 
we are pronounced just before God; but, it follows the 
antecedent righteousness of God, which is nothing else 
than the remission of sins, and the gracious reception 
of poor sinners, for the sake of the obedience and merit 
of Christ alone." {Form. Cone, Part II., Art. hi. 59.) 
Nothing can avail for the condemned sinner's justification 
but the life and suffering and death of the Lamb of God, 
that taketh away the sins of the world. 



Section 3. 

JUSTIFICATION A DIVINE DECLARATION CHANGING THE SINNER'S 
RELATION TO GOD. 

Justification is an act of God. Man is its object, 
but it does not take place in man. It consists in declaring 
the sinner pardoned, and in Imputing to aim the perfect 
righteousness of Jesus. The person to be justified has sin 
and has no righteousness. In justification his sin is re- 
mitted and another's righteousness is reckoned to his 
account. This is usually expressed by terming it a fo- 



Its Nature. 25 

rensic act. The sinner is affected by it in the same way 
as the criminal is affected by a verdict of not guilty in a 
court of justice. The analogy is better, however, between 
this act and that of a ruler exercising the pardoning power 
in the case of a culprit whose guilt has been established. 
It does not change the facts in the case, but it does so 
change the criminal's relations that, although the guilt is 
undeniable, he is not condemned, but acquitted. He is 
found guilty, but he is pardoned. 

1. — That justification is such a forensic act the Scrip- 
tures teach so plainly and in so many passages that no 
man can have an excuse, with the Bible before him, for 
remaining in ignorance or in doubt respecting the doc- 
trine. 

The biblical usage of the worpl "justify" is unmistak- 
able. When a woe is pronounced against those who 
"justify the wicked for reward" (Is. v. 23), and when it is 
commanded that the judges "shall justify the righteous 
and condemn the wicked" (Deut. xxv. 1), it is difficult to 
conceive how any intelligent reader could misunderstand 
the meaning. The intention cannot be, in either case, to 
have "justify" understood in the sense of "making just." 
In both cases the meaning is so manifestly "declare just" 
that no attentive person would be likely to think of any 
other. For the wicked are not for reward made right- 
eous, but are pronounced so ; and the judges are not 
required to make righteous those who are righteous, but 
they are to declare them so, and not to pervert justice 
by condemning them. The usage is the same when the 
divine act of which we are treating is the subject. When 
it is said that the publican "went down to his house justi- 
fied rather than" the Pharisee (Luke xviii. 14), it is plain 
that only a forensic act is indicated. He was declared 
just, though he was a sinner and confessed himself to be 
such. 



26 Justification. 

The expressions used to indicate the opposite of 
"justify" uniformly point to this forensic sense. In one 
of the passages already quoted, "justify" is the antithesis 
of "condemn"; and as the latter cannot mean "to make 
wicked," neither can the former mean "to make right- 
eous." In both cases the words indicate a declaration, 
not an exercise of power working a change in the object. 
The passage in Matthew xii. 37, " By thy words thou shalt 
be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned," 
cannot mean that the words spoken shall be the means of 
carrying on a sanctifying process, on the one hand, and 
a corrupting process, on the other: it evidently refers 
merely to a sentence to be pronounced according to the 
words uttered. Passages of this description furnish ir- 
refragable proof of the forensic meaning of the term 
"justify." 

This signification, moreover, is suggested by all the 
terms used in relation to the act of justification : they are 
uniformly forensic. Thus the process is called judgment 
{Psalm, cxliii. 2) ; an accuser is mentioned {Joh?i v. 45) ; 
Christ is denominated an Advocate {1 John ii. 1) ; a 
Judge is spoken of {John v. 27) ; a witness is referred to 
{Rom. ii. 19). The whole conception is that of a tribunal 
before which the culprit is brought and, although mani- 
festly guilty, acquitted in view of a ransom offered, with- 
out which ransom it would be dreadful to be summoned 
to the trial. " Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, 
for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified." {Psalm 
cxlii. 2.) Whenever the process is 1 described, the terms 
used are always equivalent to declaring just, never to 
making just. To justify is the same as not to condemn 
{John iii. 18), not to impute sin {Rom. iv. 7). The 
Psalmist's words, "In Thy sight shall no man living be 
justified," become utterly unintelligible if justify be taken 
in any other than a forensic sense. For if the culprit is 



Its Nature. 27 

guilty, that would be a good reason why he should be 
made just, no reason at all why he should not be. It is 
the wicked who need sanctification. But his guilt is a 
good reason why he could not be declared guiltless. If 
God would deal in strict justice with the sinner He would 
not and could not pronounce him just. "By the deeds of 
the law there shall no flesh be justified." The justification 
can take place only on the ground of another's satisfac- 
tion. If it were not a forensic act the whole account of 
the transaction would necessarily be different. 

Taking all this into consideration, in connection with 
the fact: that the Scriptures never use the word "justify" 
in any other than such judicial sense, it is incontrovertibly 
certain that justification is a forensic act, by which the 
criminal, notwithstanding his manifest guilt, is declared 
acquitted or absolved. 

2. — But such acquittal consists in the forgiveness of 
sins. The Judge of all the earth, who always does right, 
cannot ignore sin, nor can man conceal it from Him. Its 
curse can oe removed from the sinner only by a gracious 
pardon. 

The supposition that God repeals or disregards His 
law, which reveals eternal justice, or that He connives at 
transgression and permits it to go unpunished, implies a 
false and an utterly unworthy conception of Deity. It is 
disgraceful weakness in a father who has threatened his 
child with chastisement in case of disobedience, to with- 
hold the punishment when the act has been committed. 
God is not sinful man that He should do this. In Him 
pity cannot subvert justice. Sin is abomination to the 
Holy One, and the punishment denounced against it must 
be visited upon the sinner. The holiness which prompted 
the menace also demands its execution. He would cease 
to be God, who is of purer eyes than to behold evil and 
cannot look upon iniquity, in whose sight not even the 



28 Justification. 

stars are pure, if He suffered His creatures to walk with 
impunity in the ways of wickedness. " The wrath of God 
is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and un- 
righteousness of men." (Rom. i. 18.) 

And as He condemns sin, He will surely find the sin- 
ner. Man only manifests his folly by endeavoring to 
hide his iniquity from the eye of the Omniscient. "The 
righteous God trieth the heart and the reins." (Psalm 
vii. 9.) "If our heart condemn us, God is greater than 
our heart, and knoweth all things." (1 Johnm. 20.) "Talk 
no more so exceedingly proudly; let not arrogancy come 
out of your mouth: for the Lord is a God of knowledge, 
and by Him actions are weighed." (1 Sam. ii. 3.) From 
his fellow-men the culprit may hide his fault; for these 
cannot look into the secret recesses of the soul, nor pene- 
trate the darkness where hideous deeds are perpetrated. 
But God sees every movement of the heart, and looks 
into every dark retreat to which men may slink for the 
commission of their crimes. The criminal, even when 
his dark deeds are known, may hide away from man, 
and thus escape the punishment with which he is threat- 
ened by human laws. But from the hands of an angry 
God it is impossible to escape. "I will send for many 
hunters," saith the Lord, "and they shall hunt them from 
every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes 
of the rocks. For Mine eyes are upon all their ways : 
they are not hid from My face, neither is their iniquity 
hid from Mine eyes." (Jer. xvi. 16, 17.) 

The sinner is not deemed sinless; his sins are not 
hidden; the rigor of divine justice is not relaxed. In 
justification, sin is remitted, not lightly passed over or 
overlooked. "Blessed are they whose iniquities are for- 
given and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man 
to whom the Lord will not impute 3111." (Rom. iv. 7, 8.) 
The apostle uses this language while treating of justifica- 



Its Nature, 29 

tion, thus showing that this is identical with such forgive- 
ness of iniquity and covering of sin. This is equally clear 
from other passages. Forgiveness of sin and justification 
are identified when St. Paul says : "Be it known unto you 
therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is 
preached unto you the forgiveness of sins , and by Him 
all that believe are justified from all things, from which 
ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." (A5ls 
xiii. 38, 39.) Our sins are remitted and we are thus justi- 
fied, which we never could be under the law, because this 
requires sinlessness. Therefore it is said that "the blood 
of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin" 
(z John i. 7), and that "being justified by His blood we 
shall be saved from wrath through Him " (Rom. v. 9). 
The cleansing from sin through its remission and the 
justification of the sinner by divine grace are the same 
act, having its ground in the blood of Jesus. Hence the 
apostle exclaims : " Who shall lay anything to the charge 
of God's elec"l? It is God that justifieth. Who is he 
that condemneth ? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that 
is risen again, who is even at the right-hand of God, who 
also maketh intercession for us." (Rom. viii. 33, 34.) 
Hence, too, it is said that God hath set forth Jesus "to 
be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare 
His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, 
through the forbearance of God." (Rom. hi. 25.) The 
sinner is pardoned, and is accordingly looked upon as 
though he had never sinned. He is wholly free from 
condemnation, and is thus justified. He is acquitted of 
all charges and freed from all penalties, because his sins, 
on account of which punishment was his due, are no 
longer laid to his charge. 

Among men a mere verbal forgiveness is sometimes 
granted, while the heart continues to impute to the of- 
fender his wrong, and only waits for a fitting opportunity 



30 Justification. 

to punish him. We are prone to transfer such human 
infirmities, which testify so forcibly of human depravity, 
to the Divine Majesty, in whom there "is no darkness at 
all." God, however, forgives not only in word, but in 
deed and in truth, treating us afterward as though we 
had never committed an offense. He declares: "I, even 
I, am He that blotteth out thy transgression for Mine 
own sake, and will not remember thy sins." (Js. xliii. 25.) 
There is no actual forgiveness when the condemnation is 
not removed and the imputation of the guilt does not 
cease. But God does not impute sin, and the pardoned 
sinner is justified. "He hath not dealt with us after 
our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities." 
(Psalm ciii. 10). 

3. — And yet justification has another aspect. The 
sinner is absolved from sin, and is thus declared just. 
But he enjoys something more than a criminal who is 
simply released from punishment. He has, in the same 
act which certifies him of the non-imputation of his 
unrighteousness, a perfect righteousness imputed to him. 
He not only ceases to be a pauper enormously in debt, 
but he becomes immensely rich. The blood of Christ 
cleanses him from all sin and renders him pure and 
lovely. The wounds and bruises and putrefying sores 
are bound up and mollified with ointment and healed, 
and a robe of beauty is substituted for the filthy rags 
which hung around his loathsome frame before. The 
wedding-garment of Christ's merits covers the sinner's 
hideous deformity. He who was so disgusting before 
now shines with heavenly radiance in his richness and 
royalty. The poor beggar becomes a king and an heir 
of everlasting glory. 

The removal of his guilt does not place him in a 
condition of indifference. Justification is not merely a 
negative act. It not only removes his sin, but also 



Its Natitre. 31 

positively clothes him with righteousness. This is im- 
puted to him instead of the sin, which is not imputed. 
" For what saith the Scripture ? Abraham believed God, 
and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to 
him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, 
but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth 
in Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted 
for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the 
blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth right- 
eousness without works." {Rom. iv. 3-6.) The righteous- 
ness of Jesus is imputed to those who believe, and as 
their faith apprehends this righteousness, faith is said to 
be counted for righteousness. "The righteousness of 
God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by 
the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of 
God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ." {Rom. iv. 21, 22.) 
We have said that remission of sin is identical with 
justification. This does not exclude from the latter the 
imputation of Christ's perfect righteousness. For the 
forgiveness of sin is based entirely upon the obedience 
which He rendered to the law, and the merits which He 
thus acquired in our behalf. The act by which we have 
forgiveness of sins is the act by which we become par- 
takers of the righteousness of Christ. Sin is removed, 
because the Lamb of God hath taken it away; right- 
eousness is ours, because the merits of the Lamb of 
God, who fulfilled all the demands of the holy law in 
our stead, as well as bore the penalty of our failure to 
fulfill them, are set down to our account. We have a 
righteousness by faith, in view of which all our own 
unrighteousness by the law is canceled. God declares 
our acceptance for Christ's sake, whose righteousness 
covers all our sin, and this declaration, by which our 
sins are forgiven and the righteousness of Jesus is im- 
puted to us, is justification. This gracious act of God 



32 Justification. 

introduces us into an entirely different relation to Himself, 
as the culprit who was found guilty under the flaw and 
was condemned, is for Christ's sake declared free from 
condemnation and an heir of heaven. 

"Concerning the righteousness of faith before God, 
we believe, teach, and confess unanimously, according to 
the preceding summary of our Christian faith and con- 
fession, that poor sinful man is justified before God — that 
is, absolved and declared free from all sins and from 
the sentence of his well-deserved condemnation, and is 
adopted as a child and heir of eternal life — without any 
human merit or worthiness, and without any antecedent, 
present, or subsequent works, out of pure grace, for the 
sake of the merit, the perfect obedience, the bitter suf- 
ferings and death, and the resurrection of Christ our 
Lord alone, whose obedience is imputed unto us for 
righteousness." {Form. Cone, Part II., Art. iii., 9). 

But the ground of this forensic act, although we have 
found it necessary to refer to it in order to render the 
nature of justification clear, requires a more full consider- 
ation; and to this we next address ourselves. 




CHAPTER II. 
THE GROUND OF JUSTIFICATION. 



THAT God should declare a sinner just, when he is 
confessedly not so in fact, seems so inconsistent 
with the attributes of God, as these are revealed in the 
Scriptures, that many are induced at once to reject the 
doctrine, without giving it sufficient attention to enable 
them rightly to understand it. They are unwilling to 
entertain the thought that any consideration could relieve 
it of its apparent absurdity. The wisdom of God is 
foolishness to them. But it is wisdom nevertheless ; and 
those who will give heed to the Holy Spirit's instruction 
never fail to find it so. 

The contradiction is only a seeming one when God is 
said to declare a sinner righteous without finding him or 
rendering him intrinsically righteous. This has already 
been indicated and must now t^e more fully explained. 
The seeming inconsistency will disappear if we properly 
consider the ground of the sinner's justification. This is 
not found in any moral worth or natural acquirements 
of man, but in the grace of God and the merits of Christ. 

Dr. Luther thus relates his experience on the subject: 

" I labored sedulously and anxiously about the sense of 

Rom. i. 17, where St. Paul says that the righteousness of 

God is revealed in the Gospel. There I long sought and 

2* C 



34 Justification. 

knocked; for the words "righteousness of God" were in 
my way, which was usually explained as meaning a virtue 
in God according to which He is just in Himself and 
condemns sinners. Thus all the doctors had explained 
it, Augustine alone excepted, saying that the righteous- 
ness of God is the wrath of God. But as often as I read 
this passage I wished that God had never revealed the 
Gospel. For who is able to love a God that is angry, 
judges, and condemns? Finally, by the enlightenment 
of the Holy Spirit I more diligently pondered the words 
of the Prophet Habakkuk, chap, ii., v. 4, where he says: 
'The just shall live by faith.' From this I gathered that 
life must come from faith, and so referred the abstract 
to the concrete. Thus the whole Scriptures were opened 
to me, and the whole heavens also." (On Gen. xxvii. 
38, Erl. Lat, vii. 74.) 

When the great Reformer was once led to see that 
the righteousness of God is a righteousness in virtue of 
which the sinner is righteous before God, referring the 
abstract "righteousness" to the concrete "righteous" — 
i. e., looking upon it not as something in God that 
condemns the unrighteous person, but as something 
acquired by our Saviour which avails for the sinner, so 
that he can escape the condemnation which is his due 
— the very gates of Paradise were opened to him. 

Those who are willing to learn the wisdom from on 
high, and be directed by the Holy Ghost into the 
blessed truth in Jesus, shall have the same joy and con- 
solation, and be enabled to join in the song: "Blessed 
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who 
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly 
places in Christ, in whcm we have redemption through 
His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the 
riches of His grace." (Eph. i. 3, 7.) 



Its Ground, 35 

Section i. 

THE GROUND OF JUSTIFICATION NOT MAN'S NATURAL WORTHINESS, 

It is undeniable that the human race is endowed 
with admirable powers, and that it possesses a dignity 
which belongs to no other earthly creature. "I will 
praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; 
marvelous are Thy works, and that my soul knoweth 
right well." {Ps. cxxxix. 14.) Sin has made a wreck of 
humanity, but the greatness is still apparent in the ruin. 
On account of this manifest dignity many have been 
led into the error of supposing that, because of it, there 
must be some worthiness in man on account of which 
God is constrained to relax His justice and let the sin- 
ner go unpunished. This error may seem to find some 
countenance in the declaration that "God so loved the 
world" that He formed and carried out His merciful plan 
to save it. For it is presumed that He would not love 
what is altogether unlovely, and that whatever is lovely 
in His sight must constitute some degree , of worthiness. 
But the existence of such merit is never intimated in 
Scripture, all whose representations of man express or 
imply his depravity and worthlessness. Nor is it affirmed 
that God finds in our fallen race moral beauties which 
render it lovely, notwithstanding its infirmities and de- 
formities. The statement that He loved the world is 
not at variance with the other statements that the world 
lieth in wickedness and that He is angry with the wicked 
every day. Sin is always hateful, and the sinner, so far 
as he is identified with his sin, is necessarily hateful 
also. And yet man, so far as his nature is capable of 
being distinguished in thought and separated in ia6t. 
from that which renders him an abomination, may be 



36 Justification. 

an object of love. God loves the souls of men, not the 
sin which pollutes those souls. They are of inestimable 
value, though their powers are perverted to the basest 
use^ A jewel is precious though it lie in the mire. 
Man has no moral worthiness that can challenge divine 
approbation and love. But he is capable of being saved. 
God made him good and great and happy, and, though 
he is fallen, he may be made so again. His nature has 
not been destroyed by sin: it may be restored by re- 
moving that which degrades it. And God, who in His 
infinite mercy made man for eternal blessedness, to the 
praise of His own glory, desired to save the souls that 
were lost, and formed the wonderful plan to accomplish 
this purpose. The object of His love is not man's 
moral condition, which is detestable, but man as He 
made him, notwithstanding the moral turpitude which 
has marred him. 

So far is the moral state of man from affording any 
ground for his justification that in justice it demands 
his condemnation. He not only has no worthiness, but 
he has positive sin which brings him under the divine 
curse. "For we have before proved both Jews and 
Gentiles, that they are all under sin; as it is written, 
There is none righteous, no, not one ; there is none that 
understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 
They are all gone out of the way, they are together 
become unprofitable ; there is none that doeth good, 
no, not one." {Rom. iii. 9-12.) "For as many as are of 
the works of the law are under the curse; for it is 
written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all 
things which are written in the book of the law to do 
them." (Gal. iii. 10.) 

But God so loves us that He would deliver us from 
the curse which we have deserved. And He does save 
us trom death and deliver us from wretchedness by 



Its Ground. 37 

declaring us just But the ground of such declaration 
can manifestly not be that moral corruption which ren- 
ders justification necessary. It is this that constitutes 
our unworthiness of any and every blessing, and our 
worthiness of eternal damnation. On this ground jus- 
tice would require sentence of death upon us, not 
acquittal. 

Nor can any original natural endowments furnish a 
claim on our part to be declared guiltless ; for, although 
these remain after the entrance of sin, they exist only 
under the contamination of that sin which pervades and 
poisons them all. "God saw that the wickedness of 
man was great in the earth, and that every imagination 
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." 
{Gen. vi. 5.) To find in these natural gifts a ground 
for his justification is, under such circumstances, plainly 
absurd. He may be saved, but he has not the ground 
of his salvation in himself. He is justified, but not on 
account of his natural or his moral properties and pos- 
sessions, or of any worthiness growing out of them. 
"God commendeth His love towards us, in that, while 
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more 
then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be 
saved from wrath through Him." {Rom. v. 8, 9.) The 
love which formed and executed the plan of our sal- 
vation was pity for our lost estate and benevolence 
toward the souls which suffered under it — not approval 
of our degradation and a purpose to reward it. "Where 
sin abounded, grace did much more abound; that as 
sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign 
through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ 
our Lord." (7#. 20, 21.) 

The sinfulness of our nature is such that it gives us 
no ray of hope that God will find anything in us on 
account of which He may pronounce us just. For not 



3 8 Justified Hon . 

only are all our powers, noble as they are in their 
created essence, permeated by sin, but we are expressly 
told that this original depravity renders us damnable. 
"We were by nature the children of wrath." (Eph. ii. 3.) 
We have not merely become so by practice. And we 
must be blind indeed if we imagined that the wicked 
nature which renders us objects of divine wrath could 
at the same time be the ground of a divine declaration 
that we are just. 

"It is above all things necessary," says Luther, 
"that I acknowledge myself to be a sinner, as the 
Gospel concludes (Rom. iii. 23 and John iii. 3) : ' Except 
a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of 
God.' Whoever confesses that he is born of a woman 
must give God the glory and say, I am nothing but a 
sinner, as David sings in Psalm li. 5: 'Behold, I was 
shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive 
me.' It is as though he would say: I must be a sin- 
ner; it is born in me; as soon as I was formed in the 
womb of my mother I was a sinner; for the flesh and 
blood of which I was made, was sin; as the proverb 
says, Where hide and fur are spoiled we get no good 
robe. The clay of which we are made is not good; 
what is furnished by father and mother is already sin. 
He who will not confess this nor own himself to be a 
sinner, but claims that he has a free will and that 
something good remains in him yet, blasphemes God 
and makes Him a liar, and must be eternally damned, 
as is meet. For he is obstinate, and will not endure 
the decision of God. Therefore the prophet declares 
(Psalm li. 4) : 'Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned, 
and done this evil in Thy sight: that Thou mightest be 
justified when Thou speakest, and be clear when Thou 
judgest.' As though again he would say: I will not 
dispute with Thee, but will acknowledge Thy Word to 



Its Ground. 39 

be right and myself* to be wrong, as Thou art true: 
but those who censure Thee would claim a light of 
reason and something by which they might become 
partakers of grace; of these Thou wilt remain clear." 

Those who set up a claim to justification on the 
basis of their natural worthiness are laboring under a 
delusion which precludes the possibility, as long as it is 
not dispelled, of their being justified. They assume the 
conformity of their nature to the law, and thus fall 
under that law's condemnation. "Christ is become of 
no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by 
the law; ye are fallen from grace. For we through 
the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith." 
{Gal. v. 4, 5.) The assumption that our own nature has 
worthiness which moves God to pronounce us just is 
a manifest rejection of the only Name given under 
heaven whereby we must be saved. 

So far is man from having a natural worthiness 
which could furnish any ground for justification that 
the Scriptures show him to be full of sin and worthy 
of all condemnation. He is born in sin. His whole 
nature is corrupt. The sin of his nature is, as our 
Formula of Concord expresses it, "a total defect or 
privation of the connate hereditary righteousness in 
Paradise, or of the image of God, after which man was 
originally created, in truth, holiness, and righteousness; 
and at the same time it is an inability and unfitness 
for all spiritual things; the description of original sin 
takes from unrenewed nature both the gifts and the 
power or ability to begin and accomplish anything in 
spiritual matters." It is "not only this entire want cr 
all that is good in spiritual and divine things," but 
also a deep, evil, horrible, lathomless, unsearchable 
and unspeakable corruption of the whole nature and of 
all the powers of man, especially of the noblest and 



40 Justification. 

most eminent faculties of the soul, in the understand- 
ing, heart, and will; insomuch that now, since the fall, 
man inherits an innate evil disposition and an inward 
impurity of heart, evil desires and inclinations; so that 
by nature we all inherit a heart-, mind, and thoughts 
from Adam which, in respect of their highest powers 
and the light of reason, are diametrically opposed to 
God by nature and to His chief commands, and indeed 
are at enmity with God, especially with regard to di- 
vine and spiritual things." "The punishments which 
God has imposed on the children of Adam on account 
of original sin are death, everlasting damnation, and 
other bodily and spiritual, temporal and eternal miseries, 
the tyranny and dominion of Satan." (Part II., Art. i. 
9-13.) Where there are such depths of depravity it 
would be lolly to speak of any merit or worthiness 
that would furnish ground for justification. In sinful 
man. there is ground only for condemnation. 



Section 2. 

THE GROUND OF JUSTIFICATION NOT ANY HUMAN ACQUIREMENT. 

There are some who, while they admit that our 
justification does not rest upon any natural gifts or 
worth presume that its ground must be the acquire- 
ments, which are the results of our personal efforts. 
That it is not wealth, to secure which so much energy 
is expended, nor social position which to many seems 
the highest goal that man can reach, will no doubt be 
readily admitted ; for these things are too plainly of the 
earth earthy; they are too manifestly distinctions ol a 
transitory character: they are, in many cases, too ob- 
viously found associated with grave moral defects and 



Its Ground, 41 

delinquencies, upon which it is felt that God cannot 
look with complacency. But mental accomplishments 
and moral achievements are not so readily seen to fur- 
nish no ground for justification, and the latter especially 
are often supposed to constitute a sufficient foundation 
for it. 

That mental accomplishments cannot be its ground 
must, upon reflection, appear as plain as that it cannot 
be pecuniary acquisitions or social advantages. Wisdom 
and knowledge are, indeed, valuable possessions. But 
the Holy Scriptures do not commend them to us, with- 
out reference to their subj eel-matter and their applica- 
tion, as ends at which we should aim. "For it is 
written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will 
bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. 
Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the 
disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the 
wisdom of this world? For after that, in the wisdom 
ol God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased 
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that 
believe." (7 Cor. i. 19-21.) "Knowledge puffeth up, 
but charity edifieth." (1 Cor. viii. 1.) When wisdom is 
set before us as a goal towards which we should in- 
cessantly strive, it is not the wisdom of this world, but 
it is the wisdom which is from above, the beginning of 
which is the fear of the Lord. {Psalm cxi. 10.) Not 
knowledge of any kind, but knowledge of the highest 
object, involving its proper appreciation, is represented 
as a great treasure. "This is life eternal, that they 
might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, 
whom Thou hast sent." {John xvii. 3.) When mental 
powers and acquirements bring the soul into no living 
relation to the truth which makes us free, they are 
utterly valueless for our salvation. They are sometimes 
spoken of in the Word of God as coupled with a 



42 Justification, 

spiritual state in which justification is impossible. For 
when our Saviour says that "the children of this world 
are in their generation wiser than the children of light" 
{Luke xvi. 8), He attributes wisdom to persons who 
are contrasted with His justified people, and in whom, 
therefore, the ground of justification cannot exist. Nay, 
we are even warned against the insidious arts of un- 
hallowed wisdom. "Beware lest any man spoil you 
through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition 
of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after 
Christ." {Col. ii. 8.) It is a matter of experience, also, 
that men of eminence for intellectual ability and acquire- 
ments are often found in the ranks of those who fight 
against the Redeemer and His Church; that many 
seek only the applause of the world, desiring, like the 
builders of Babel, to make unto themselves a name in 
the earth; and that many deify themselves by putting 
their trust in their own wisdom, notwithstanding that 
"thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in 
his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his 
might; let not the rich man glory in his riches: but 
let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he under- 
standeth and knoweth Me, that I am the Lord which 
exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness 
in the earth; for in these things I delight, saith the 
Lord." {Jer. ix. 23, 24.) Of persons who thus pervert 
their attainments to ungodly uses, justification can in 
no wise be predicated. A man may be skilled in all 
the wisdom of the world, and yet use it all in the ser- 
vice of Satan to his own condemnation. 

Nor can the ground of the sinner's justification lie 
in the exercise of his moral powers, or in the results 
which are attained by such exercise. It has been 
shown that there is no moral worth in man, on account 
of which God could pronounce him just. But the 



Its Ground. 43 

stream cannot rise higher than its source: the activity 
of his faculties and the products of this activity cannot 
transcend in moral value the fountain whence they flow. 
What is not in man cannot emanate from him. The 
heart is sinful, and that which issues from it is sin. 
"For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, 
adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: 
these are the things which defile a man." {Mat. xv. 19, 
20.) "That which is born of the flesh is flesh"; and 
"the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: 
adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, 
witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, se- 
ditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revel- 
ings, and such like; of the which I tell you before, as 
I have also told you in time past, that they which do 
such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." 
(GaL v. 19-21.) This fully certifies us, that the exercise 
of the moral powers which man possesses by nature 
results in sin, and that those who have nothing beyond 
this to rely upon are yet in their sins and cannot be 
justified. 

It is not at all denied that desirable ends are some- 
times accomplished by the exercise of merely natural 
powers, and that both the activity and the achieve- 
ments have the appearance of moral worth. "It is 
taught that, to some extent, man has freedom of will 
to lead a life outwardly honest, and to choose between 
things which reason comprehends; but, without the 
grace, assistance, and operation of the Holy Spirit, that 
he is unable to become pleasing to God, or to fear 
God in his heart, or to believe in Him, or to cast out 
of his heart innate evil; and that these things are ef- 
fected by the Holy Spirit, who is given through the 
Word of God ; foi St. Paul says (7 Cor. ii. 14) : ' The 
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of 



44 Justification. 

God.'" These words of the Augsburg Co?ifessio?i con- 
tain the pure truth which God has revealed in His 
blessed Word, and which God's children have believed 
and confessed in all ages and lands, 

Moreover, if the specious deeds of the natural man 
even were real virtues, they would form no ground of 
justification; ior man's good works are never free from 
the impurities of the flesh, which he bears with him, 
and which mfects him and all that he does in this 
mortal life And even supposing that they were free 
from every taint of sin, the acts which are performed 
in accordance with the law's requirements cannot make 
amends ior the deeds by which that law was trans- 
gressed. ' When ye shall have done all these things 
which are commanded "you, say, we are unprofitable 
servants: we have done that which was our duty to 
do. {Luke xvii. 10.) The performance of duty in the 
present will not atone for its neglect in the past, and 
can therelore constitute no claim of justification. But 
these performances are not real virtues in the sight of 
God, strong as their external resemblance to virtue may 
be, and illusive as they on that account frequently are. 
For God looks at the heart, and by it judges the 
work. If the heart which produces it be evil, the pro- 
duct cannot be pronounced good. '" Do men gather 
grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?" "Whatsoever is 
riot of faith is sin" {Rom. xiv. 23), and God will not 
declare it virtue. Man may exert himself as he will, 
he is a child of wrath by nature {Eph. ii. 3), and with- 
out Christ must ever remain such {Afis iv. 12). To 
suppose that, with such a nature, his efforts or accom- 
plishments will entitle him to justification, is sheer 
superstition. 

4 Here the scholastics have followed the philoso- 
phers/' says the Apology; "and when they attempt to 



Its Ground, 45 

define how man is justified before God, they teach only 
the righteousness and piety of a correct external de- 
portment before the world and of good works, and in 
addition devise the dream that human reason is able, 
without the aid of the Holy Ghost, to love God above 
all things. For it is undoubtedly true that when the 
human heart is at ease and free from trouble and 
temptation, and does not feel the wrath and judgment 
of God, it may imagine that it loves God above all 
things, and does much good and many works for 
God's sake; but this is mere hypocrisy. Yet in this 
manner our adversaries have taught that men merit 
the remission of sins, if they do as much as lies in 
their power; that is, if reason regrets sin and elicits 
an a6l of love to God. Since men are naturally in- 
clined to the idea that their merits and works are of 
some value in the sight of God, this false principle 
has brought forth innumerable perverted methods of 
worship in the Church; for example, monastic -vows, 
the abuse of masses, and the like, without number, new 
modes of worship being constantly devised out of this 
error. And in order that such confidence in our merits 
and works might be further disseminated, they impu- 
dently maintained that the Lord must of necessity give 
grace unto those who do such good works ; not indeed 
that He is compelled, but' that this is the order which 
God will not transgress or alter. In these opinions, 
in this very doctrine, many other gross, pernicious 
errors and horrid blasphemies against God are em- 
braced and hidden, to state all of which now would 
require too much time. But we beg every Christian 
reader to consider for God's sake: If we can be justi- 
fied before God and become Christians through such 
works, I would like to hear — and let every effort be 
made to reply — what the difference would be between 



46 Justification. 

the doctrines of the philosophers and those of Christ? 
If we can obtain the remission of sins through such 
works of ours, what benefit then is Christ to us? If 
we can become holy and pious in the sight of God by 
natural reason and our own good works, what need 
have we then of the blood and death of Christ, or 
being born anew through Him, as St. Peter says, 1 
Epistle i. 3?" (Art. iv. 9-14.) 

Sinftil man can of himself bring forth nothing but 
sin, and can merit nothing but eternal death, which is 
the wages of sin. His possessions and performances 
form a ground of condemnation, not of justification. 



Section 3. 

THE GROUND OF JUSTIFICATION IS THE GRACE OF GOD AND THE 
MERITS OF CHRIST. 

The ground of the divine declaration which sets the 
sinner free from the penalty of his sin cannot be found 
in himself, it must be sought in something exterior to 
him. It is impossible that a declaration which affirms 
the sinner to be just, while he is in his nature unjust 
and is not by the justifying acl; rendered otherwise, 
should be made without some ground upon which to 
base it. God is just, and yet He is the justifier of the 
the sinner. The justice of God and His justification of 
the sinner require reconciliation in our thoughts. Upon 
what ground is the sinner, who is confessedly worthy 
of condemnation, acquitted? Such a ground the Scrip- 
tures set before us in the redemption through Christ, 
as infinite grace devised and executed the wonderful 
plan. The seeming contradiction which is involved in 
the proposition that God justifies the unjust is com- 



Its Ground. 47 

pletely reconciled in the consolatory statements of the 
Gospel concerning the merits of Jesus as availing for 
our salvation. We are "justified freely by His grace 
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." (Rom. 
iii. 24.) 

God is love. The exercise of love in dispensing 
blessings to the unworthy is denominated grace. By 
sin man has forfeited all claims upon God's favor, and 
become an object of His displeasure. But still He de- 
sires the welfare of the fallen. He would not have 
them perish in their sin and be forever wretched. "As 
I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the 
death of the wicked." (Ez. xxxiii. 1.) He yearns to 
save the lost soul. "It is of the Lord's mercies that we 
are not consumed, because His compassions fail not." 
(Lam. iii. 22.) With a tenderness infinitely surpassing 
that of a father toward his erring but still beloved child, 
He pities us and stretches forth His arm to help us. 
"The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and 
plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide; neither 
will he keep His anger forever. He hath not dealt 
with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to 
our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the 
earth, so great is His mercy to them that fear Him. 
As far as the East is from the West, so far hath He 
removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father 
pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear 
Him." (Psalm ciii. 8-13.) His grace is infinite as His 
being, and is ever active for the rescue of our ruined 
race. 

But this grace cannot save us absolutely. Its exer- 
cise is conditioned upon the satisfaction rendered to the 
demands of justice. God cannot connive at sin, nor 
violate His truth. Whilst it is undeniably His will that 
all should be saved, this is accomplished only in a cer- 



48 Justification. 

tain order, apart from which there can be no salvation. 
Those who reject the plan of God, according to which 
alone it is possible to be delivered from damnation, are 
irremediably lost. God sent His only Son to redeem 
the world, and sends His Holy Spirit to apply the 
redemption which has been accomplished. He thus 
performs His gracious will to save mankind. But this 
gracious will necessarily involves the means, without 
which it could not be done. If God could save men 
without the redemption and without its application to 
sinners, the whole Christian system would be without 
meaning and without purpose. Salvation would then 
be secured by a love which, though represented as di- 
vine, would be regardless of all right and of all vera- 
city, and which, because" trampling upon all holiness 
and all its utterance in law, would be mere sentimental 
weakness of infinite proportions. Of such injurious im- 
putations upon the perfection of God the Scriptures can, 
of course, know nothing. They speak much of the 
grace of God and its exquisite comfort to man, but 
never in such a way as to impeach the divine justice. 
They speak of God as just, and still a justifier of sin- 
ners. They represent the operation of grace as being 
in perfect harmony with the requirements of righteous- 
ness, the satisfaction of the latter being the necessary 
condition of the saving efficacy of the former. God 
did not so love the world that He determined, right 
or wrong, to save it; but He so loved it "that He gave 
His only-begotten Son, that whosoever belie veth in Him 
should not perish, but have everlasting life." {John iii. 
16.) God's love to man is everywhere apparent. 

But when we inquire into the relation of that love 
to human salvation, the Scriptures do not tell us that 
divine grace absolutely determines to save men, but 
that "God commendeth His love to 11s, in that, while 



Its Ground. 



49 



we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." {Rom. v. 8.) 
Therefore they speak of "the grace of our Lord Jesus 
Christ," and 01 "the grace ol God in Christ." Upon 
His own dear Son was the grace of God {Luke ii. 40), 
and "of His fullness have all we received, and grace 
for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace 
and truth came by Jesus Christ." {John i. 16, 17.) The 
condition of the bestowal of grace is uniformly taught 
to be the mediation of our Lord. " For if through the 
offense of one many be dead, much more the grace of 
God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, 
Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many." {Rom. v. 15.) 
Hence we are said to be "justified freely by His grace, 
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." {Rom. 
iii. 24.) In no case is it intimated that justification ever 
takes place independently of that redemption. On the 
contrary, it is expressly stated that "he that believeth 
on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth 
not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God 
abideth on him." {John iii. 36.) 

The impelling cause of our justification is therefore 
manifestly the grace of God ; but this grace is upon us 
only because of the atonement made by Jesus Christ, 
our Lord. Grace is the internal and the redemption is 
the external motive which prompts Jehovah to declare 
the sinner just. "God hath saved us, and called us 
with a holy calling, not according to our works, but 
according to His own purpose and grace, which was 
given in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is 
now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour 
Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought 
life and immortality to light through the Gospel." {2 
Tim. i. 9, 10.) 

In justification, therefore, the sinner is declared right- 
eous before God on the ground of another's righteous- 
3 D 



50 y testification. 

ness, which avails for him, namely, that of Jesus Christ 
This is imputed to him, and all his sin is pardoned 
because his Surety has satisfied every claim against 
him. The process is that of a debtor's liberation on 
the ground of another s s payment of his debt. God de- 
clares us free from punishment because our Saviour has 
borne the penalty of our violation of His law, and pro- 
nounces us righteous because our Saviour has fulfilled 
ail righteousness in our stead. What the Saviour did 
and suffered was all for us. This constitutes His merit, 
which* is graciously imputed to us for our justification. 
St. Paul teaches us that "when the fullness of the 
time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a 
woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were 
under the law." {Gal. iv.- 4, 5.) As the whole human 
race lay under the curse of the law which was violated, 
and as God in His infinite grace desired to save it from 
everlasting misery, He sent His Son into the world, not 
to condemn it, as it had merited, "but that the world 
through Him might be saved." {John iii. 17.) This 
salvation was effected by the substitution of the Son of 
God in the sinner's stead. To this end it was neces- 
sary, first of all, that He should become the Son of 
Man. Divinity must assume our humanity and dwell 
among us. The penalty of sin, which is death and all 
the suffering that issues in death, must be borne. But 
God, in the perfection of His being, is incapable of 
suffering and of death. He could not, therefore, occupy 
the sinner's place in the endurance of such penalty, 
without taking upon Himself our nature. Moreover, 
the demands of the law are made upon man, and must 
therefore be satisfied by man. Such satisfaction the 
Son of God could render, so that it would be available 
for humanity, only by becoming one of our race. But 
He came to save, and was willing to do what must be 



Its Ground. 5 1 

done to effect His gracious purpose. Accordingly we 
read that the Word, that is, the Son of God, "was 
made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His 
glory, the glory as of the only-begotten Son of the 
Father, full of grace and truth" (Jbhni. 14); that "God 
was manifest in the flesh" (1 Tim. iii. 16); that of the 
Israelites "as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is 
over all, God blessed forever" {Rom. ix. 5); and that 
"forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh 
and blood He also Himself likewise took part of the 
same, that through death He might destroy him that 
has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver 
them, who through fear of death were all their life-time 
subject to bondage; for verily He took not on Himself 
the nature of angels, but He took on Him the seed of 
Abraham." (Heb. iii, 14-16.) Having thus entered into 
our race and become one of us, He, being made under 
the law, although, in His exalted person, He was su- 
perior to it, entered upon the work of redeeming us 
from the curse and of making us heirs of heaven. 

To accomplish this it was requisite, in the first 
place, to render an active obedience to every precept 
of God's holy law, For the satisfaction that must be 
made, necessarily involved the performance of that which 
the sinner failed to perform. The law was not fulfilled 
by man, and must, therefore, before he can inherit the 
blessings which are promised only to those who obey the 
law, be fulfilled by Him who was graciously pleased to 
become our Substitute. Hence our Lord says: "Think 
not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: 
I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill." {Mat. v. 17.) 
He was made under the law for our sake, and His 
whole life was devoted to the fulfillment of its require- 
ments, all of which He perfectly satisfied. 

But the righteous law which our Saviour fulfilled has 



52 Justification. 

been violated by man, and the penalty of its violation 
was already due, "The wages of sin is death." {Ro?n. 
vi. 23.) The satisfaction to be rendered involved the 
suffering of this penalty by a passive obedience, in which 
the punishment merited by us is borne by our Substi- 
tute. Hence, for our unspeakable comfort, the Scrip- 
tures teach us that God "hath made Him to be sin for 
us, Who knew no sin, that we might be made the right- 
eousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. v. 21); that "Christ 
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made 
a curse for us»; for it is written, Cursed is every one 
that hangeth on a tree" (GaL iii. 13); that He "was de- 
livered for our offenses and raised again for our justi- 
fication" {Rom. iv. 25); that He "His own self bore 
our sins in His own body on the tree" (7 Peter ii. 24); 
that "Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just 
for the unjust" (tb. iii. 18); that "Christ was once of- 
fered to bear the sins of many" (Heb. ix. 28); and that 
"we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the 
angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory 
and honor, that He by the grace of God should taste 
death for every man." {Ib. ii. 9.) Thus full satisfaction is 
~endered to all the requirements of God's righteousness, 
:.3 revealed in His perfect law. All that God demands 
cur Saviour performed, and all the penalty denounced 
upon transgressors our Saviour endured. The claims 
of the law, in active obedience and passive penalty, are 
perfectly satisfied by Christ. 

And this was all for us, upon whom these demands 
are made and these penalties are denounced. This is 
expressly stated in the passages just quoted, as well as 
in many others. There can, if we are willing to take 
the Scriptures as our guide, be no uncertainty upon this 
point. Our ever-blessed Saviour is our Substitute, "who 
of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and 



j Ground. 53 

sanclification, and redemption; that, according as it is 
written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." 
(1 Cor. i. 30.) Hence we say, in our Catechism. "I 
believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the 
Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the 
Virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a 
lost and condemned creature, purchased and won me 
from all sins, from death, and from the power of the 
devil, not with gold or silver, but with His holy, pre- 
cious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, 
that I may be His own, and live under Him in His 
kingdom, and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, 
innocence, and blessedness, even as He is risen from 
the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity." (Part II., 2.) 
This is the sure ground of our justification, justice 
is not relaxed, much less is it frustrated, in the gracious 
declaration of God rendering the sinner free from the 
curse; all its requirements are fully satisfied in the life 
and death of Christ. "All have sinned and come short 
of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace 
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom 
God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in 
His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remis- 
sion of sins that are past, through the forbearance of 
God, to declare, I say, at this time His righteousness; 
that He might be just and the justifier of him which 
beheveth in Jesus." {Rom. iii. 23-25.) When Christ's 
righteousness is imputed to the sinner and his guilt is 
pardoned, he cannot be under condemnation, though he 
be a sinner still; he is justified. "The righteousness," 
says the Formula of Concord, "which God through 
grace imputes to faith or to the believer, is the obe- 
dience, suffering, and resurrection of Christ, by which 
He satisfied the law and atoned for our sin. For as 
Christ was not only man, but God and man in one in- 



54 Justification. 

dividual person, He was just as little subject to the law, 
being Lord also of this, as He was, for Himself, subject 
to suffering and death* Therefore His obedience in suf- 
fering and death, and His voluntary subjection, in our 
stead, to the law, to which He rendered such obedience, 
is accounted to us for righteousness; so that God, on 
account of the obedience which, in His deeds and suf- 
ferings, in His life and death, He rendered to His 
heavenly Father, forgives our sins, accounts us good 
and righteous, and eternally saves us." (Part II., 3, 15.) 

The redemption of the human race is a stupendous 
mystery of divine grace. We are sinful, but Christ is 
made unto us righteousness. " As by the offense of one 
judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so 
by the righteousness of One the free gift came upon 
all men unto justification of life." {Rom. v. 18.) Sin- 
ners are declared just, but it is not without ground. 
That ground is indeed not in themselves, but it is all 
the more safe and sure on that account. In view of 
our Saviour's perfect merits we are freed from guilt and 
condemnation, and made blessed heirs of heaven, who 
rejoice in the hope of eternal glory. 

Christ was made under the law to deliver us from 
its curse and secure for us the adoption of sons. In a 
sermon on Galaticmsxv. 1-7, Dr. Luther says: "For the 
purpose of perceiving more clearly how Christ was put 
under the law, we must observe that He put Himself 
under the law in a two-fold manner. In the first place, 
He put Himself under the works of the law. He per- 
mitted Himself to be circumcised and to be presented 
and purified in the temple. He was subject to Hi-: 
father and mother, &c, when there was no obligation 
requiring it; for He was Lord over all laws. But He 
did it freely ... In the second place, He willingly put 
Himself under the penalty and punishment of the law. 



lis Ground. 55 

He not only performed the works of the law, which He 
was under no obligation to do, but He also willingly and 
innocently suffered the penalty which the law threatens 
and adjudges to all who do not observe it. Now, the 
law adjudges all who do not keep it to death and dam- 
nation, as St Paul {Gal. iii, 10) quotes from Deutero- 
nomy xxvii. 26: * Cursed is every one that continueth 
not in all things which are written in the book of the 
law to do them.' 

"It is sufficiently evident from what has been said 
above, that no person who is out of Christ is able to 
keep the law, and all such are under it, like servants, 
fettered and constrained. Hence it follows that whoso- 
ever does not keep the law deserves its judgments and 
penalty. For this reason whoever is under the law 
according to the first manner, according to its works, 
must also be under it according to the second manner, 
according to its punishment; so that, according to the 
first mode, all our works are sinful, because they are 
not performed from a willing disposition, but in oppo- 
sition to our inclination; and according to the second 
mode we are adjudged and condemned to death and 
damnation. 

"Here Christ intervenes before the sentence is ex- 
ecuted upon us; He comes to us under the curse of 
the law, and suffers the death and damnation just as 
if He had violated the whole law Himself and deserved 
the whole penalty which is due to the transgressor; al- 
though He has not only not broken it, but has fulfilled 
the whole law which He was under no obligation to 
keep. His innocence accordingly is two-fold; First, He 
was under no obligations to suffer, even if He had not 
kept the law, as He was not bound by it. Secondly, 
He fulfilled it with perfect willingness, and was there- 
fore not subject to its penalty. On the other hand, our 



56 Justificaiiojz, 

guilt is also two-fold: First, we were bound to keep 
the law, but did not do it, wherefore we deserved to 
suffer all its penalties. Secondly, even if we did keep 
it, we suffer justly what God imposes, 

"Behold, this is putting the Son of God under the 
law to redeem them that were under the law. For us, 
for our good, He accomplished all this, not for Him- 
self. He desired to manifest to us nothing but good- 
ness and love and mercy, as St. Paul says (GW. iii. 13): 
'Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, 
being made a curse for us.' As if he should say: For 
us He put Himself under the law and complied with 
its demands, so that all who believe that He did this 
might be redeemed from the law and its curse. Ob- 
serve, then, the abundant treasure with which the believ- 
ing Christian is blessed, To him all the works and 
sufferings of Christ are attributed as his own, so that 
he may rely upon them as if he had accomplished 
them himself and they were all his own. For, as al- 
ready said, Christ did all this, not for Himself but for 
us; He needs nothing of it; He accumulated the treas- 
ure that we might cling to it, believe it, and possess 
it." (Erl. vii. 270-272.) 

Justification is accordingly not a divine act. which 
ignores the sins of men or sets aside the divine law 
with its righteous demands and its dreadful penalties, 
St. Paul says in this regard: ' Do we then make void 
the law through faith? God forbid! yea, we establish 
the law." {Rom. iii. 31.) The obedience which none of 
our sinful race could render, our blessed Lord rendered 
in our stead, and thus fulfilled all the requirements of 
divine righteousness. He did and suffered what was 
demanded of us, so that by His stripes we might be 
healed. We are saved by infinite grace, not by any 
merit of ours; but that grace is operative for our sal- 



Its Ground. 



57 



vation through the fulfillment of all righteousness by 
our Lord Jesus Christ, not by any conflict with divine 
justice. "For all have sinned and come short of the 
glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through 
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." {Rom. iii. 23, 24.) 
This treasure of Christ's merits is prepared for all 
unto their justification. But not all are in actual pos- 
session of the treasure. By nature no man has it and 
no man can attain it. The same grace by which God 
sent His only Son to redeem men has instituted means 
for its bestowal, through which, again, He works the 
means for its appropriation. The sinner can be actu- 
ally justified only by being brought into a living relation 
to Him who is the only ground of our justification. 




CHAPTER III. 
THE MEANS OF ITS BESTOWAL. 



THE redemption through Christ Jesus, which forms 
the ground of the sinner's justification, is univer- 
sal; and God's gracious will is that all should become 
participants in its inestimable blessings. In the general 
purpose of God all men are justified; for He sincerely 
desires the salvation of all, has embraced all in His 
wonderful plan to effecl: this salvation, and offers it 
freely to all. But it must needs be conveyed to those 
for whom it is designed; and the grace which devised 
and executed the plan to save all through the mission 
of the Saviour, has also made all necessary arrange- 
ments lor such conveyance. "All things are of God, 
who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and 
hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, 
that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto 
Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and 
hath committed unto us the Word of reconciliation." 
(2 Cor. v. 18, 19.) They only to whom the declaration 
has been brought, can be in actual possession of justi- 
fication; and to convey it, God has given us His Holy 
Word and instituted the Holy Sacraments, as the means 
of grace. 



The Means of its Bestowal, 59 

Section i. 

JUSTIFICATION REQUIRES MEANS TO BESTOW IT. 

To those who are acquainted with the Scriptures and 
have permitted the Holy Spirit to lead them into their 
precious truth, the opinion that the merits of Christ 
avail for man's justification without any communication 
by external means, or any communication whatever, will 
lack all plausibility. It would degrade the whole order 
of grace into a system of nature, and thus undermine 
the foundation of Christianity. By nature we have no 
part in the merits of Christ, and by grace we are not 
made partakers of them without means. 

By our natural birth we stand in relationship with the 
first Adam, and share his fallen nature, not with the 
Second Adam, who came to restore what was lost 
"That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that 
which is born of the Spirit is spirit: marvel not that I 
say unto thee, ye must be born again." {John iii. 6, 7.) 
Natural generation introduces us into the world, not 
into the communion of saints. We enter the latter 
only by spiritual regeneration. "The first man Adam 
was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a 
quickening spirit. Howbeit, that was not first w T hich is 
spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward that 
which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy; 
the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the 
earthy, such are they also that are earthy; and as is 
the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. 
And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we 
shall also bear the image of the heavenly, Now this 
I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the 
kingdom of God." (/ Cor. xv. 45-50.) Therefore, those 



6o justification. 

who are introduced into the order of grace are spoken 
of as new creatures, so utterly distinct is this from the 
order of nature. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new 
creature." (2 Cor. v. 17.) "For in Christ Jesus neither 
circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but 
a new creature." {Gal. vi. 15.) 

All that our blessed Saviour achieved in His labors 
and sufferings profits those nothing who are "without 
Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, 
and strangers from the covenants of promise, having 
no hope and without God in the world." (Eph. ii. 12.) 
For although the Son of God took upon Himself our 
nature, and thus became one of our race, the parti- 
cipation in the blessings thus secured for humanity 
requires our introduction into that body of which He is 
the gracious Head. Without this we are in fellowship 
merely with the corrupt nature of Adam, and are there- 
fore children of wrath. Our Lord says to His disciples: 
" I am the Vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth 
in me, and I in Him, the same bringeth forth much 
fruit; for without Me ye can do nothing." (Jo/mxv. 5.) 
Those who will not come to Him are without the grace 
and blessing of which He alone is the fountain. Men 
are never addressed in Scripture as heirs of heaven in 
virtue of their sharing human nature, which Jesus also 
shares. Theirs is human nature corrupt; His is human 
nature pure. The guilt of their corruption must be put 
away, and the merit of Christ's purity must be appro- 
priated. They are therefore invited to come to Him 
that they may have life and salvation. "As many as 
received Him, to them gave He power to become the 
sons of God, even to them that believe on His name; 
which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the 
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." {John. i. 12, 13.) 

To share His benefits we must be brought into fel- 



The Means of its Bestowal. 61 

lowship with the new life which He introduced. "He 
that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and He 
that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the 
wrath of God abideth on him." {John iii. 36.) We are 
still under the curse, as long as we stand apart from 
the Saviour, notwithstanding that our Lord was pleased 
to clothe Himself with our nature ; for so long we have 
nothing to rest upon but our own righteousness, which 
is as filthy rags and only renders us damnable. When 
our Redeemer says, " Come unto me, all ye that labor 
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest," it would 
seem nothing less than infidelity to maintain that we 
can have rest, in virtue of His gracious work, without 
coming to Him. To those who thus contradict the 
Lord His words are applicable: "Ye will not come to 
Me, that ye might have life." {John v. 40.) 

That we, since we are not born into the kingdom 
of God, cannot enter that kingdom by any powers with 
which we are born, scarcely requires mention. We can- 
not grow into it or raise ourselves into it. Age, though 
it brings us nearer the grave, cannot, without Christ, 
bring us nearer to salvation. Education, though it can 
develope the natural powers, cannot change their na- 
ture: it never transforms the natural into the spiritual. 
All efforts in this direction are useless. " Can the Ethi- 
opean change his skin, or the leopard his spots ? " (Jer. 
xiii. 23.) The blessing must be bestowed upon man; he 
cannot procure it himself, God alone has it to bestow, 
and therefore from Him alone can it be obtained. But 
He bestows it with a bounteous hand, and whosoever 
will, may come and take of the water of life freely. 

This bestowal, however, is not immediate. " It must 
constantly be maintained," says the Church of the Re- 
formation in her Smalcald Articles, viii. 3, "that God 
gives His Spirit and grace to no one except through 



6 c stificatiou, 

the preceding exiernal word, and with it, that we may 
be fortified against the enthusiasts — that is, the spirits 
who boast of possessing the Spirit without the word, 
and prior to it, and who accordingly judge, torture, and 
pervert the Scriptures, or oral word, according to their 
pleasure, as Muenzer did, and as many still do at the 
present day, pretending to be acute judges between the 
letter and the Spirit, but not knowing what they say 
or whereof they affirm. The papacy also is nothing 
but enthusiasm, in which the Pope boasts of having all 
rights in the shrine of his own heart, and claims that 
what he decides and commands in his Church is spirit-, 
ual and right, even though it should be in opposition 
to the Scriptures and the oral word." 

Fanaticism, which makes the natural faculties a cri- 
terion of spiritual things, is a more dangerous foe to 
Christianity than many sincere persons arc willing to 
admit. It leaves the soul at the mercy of ever-chang- 
ing human opinions and human whims, and sets aside 
the only reliable guide that man possesses in things 
unseen. And the very root of fanaticism is the base- 
less notion that God deals immediately with men. This 
assumes that He has appointed no external means of 
communication with them, but makes known His pleas- 
ure by direct impressionss upon the human intellect or 
sensibilities. Those who entertain this notion can ac- 
knowledge no channel by which grace is conveyed. 
The result of such error has been sufficiently exhibited, 
in the history of the Church, to prove a warning to all 
who are willing to learn. Its products are terrible. On 
the one hand, we see growing out of it the wild extra- 
vagancies of those sects who mistake their feelings for 
the voice of Jehovah, many of whom have been driven 
by their impulses into sordidness that disgraces human- 
ity, while in their strong delusion, they thought that 



The Means of its Bestowal. 63 

they were doing God service. On the other hand, we 
see springing from it the heartless and profane specu- 
lations of those rationalistic parties who identify the 
voice of blinded reason with the voice of God, many 
of whom have enunciated dogmas at which angels weep 
and devils rejoice, while, in their strange perversion, 
they thought them divine. 

The Reformers were right in lifting up their voices 
like a trumpet against this pernicious vagary, and in 
earnestly maintaining the necessity of external means for 
the bestowal of grace and truth unto salvation. They 
did so already in the Augsburg Confession, Art. v., 
where they say, and the Lutheran Church says with 
them: "God has instituted the ministry, and given the 
Gospel and the Sacraments, through which, as means, 
He imparts the Holy Spirit. .... Bv this are con- 
demned the Anabaptists and others, who teach that 
we receive the Holy Spirit in consequence of our own 
preparation, by our thoughts and works, without the 
external word of the Gospel." They did it still more 
energetically in the Smalcald Articles, viii. 5-10, in which 
the Church still heartily concurs: "It is all Satan and 
the old serpent, who made Adam and Eve enihusiasts, 
and who leads away from the external word to spirit- 
ualism and self-conceited fancies, and yet does this by 
other external words. So our enthusiasts condemn the 
outward word, and still will not keep silence themselves, 
but fill the world with their babbling and scribbling, just 
as though the Spirit could not come through the Scrip- 
tures or the oral word of the apostles, but must needs 
come through their writings and word. Why do they 
not stop their preaching and writing until the Spirit 
comes upon the people before and without their words, 
as they boast that He came upon them without the 
preaching of the Scriptures? .... In fine, enthusiasm 



Justification. 

pervades Adam and his children from the beginning of 
the world, and will cling to them to the end, being in- 
fused into them by the old dragon; and it is the root 
and power of all heresies, including Romanism and 
Mahometanism. Therefore we must stand firm in the 
faith that God will not treat with us except by the 
external word and Sacraments. All that is boasted of 
without such word and Sacraments, as being the Spirit, 
is the devil." 

To arrive at certainty with regard to the work of 
the Spirit, it is requisite that we be able to refer the 
operation, which is held to be such, to an external 
means as its divinely -instituted instrumental cause. "For 
of the presence, operation, and gifts of the Holy Spirit 
we should not and can not always judge by sense, to 
wit, how it is felt and when it is felt in the heart; but, 
because it is often concealed by great infirmities, we 
must obtain certainty from the promise given that the 
Word of God preached and heard is the minister and 
organ of the Holy Spirit, through which He truly works 
and is efficacious in our hearts, 2 Cor. ii. 14." {Form, 
Cone, ii. 56.) 

As justification is a declaration of God changing our 
relation to Him, on the ground of Christ's merits, and 
does not consist in an internal change of which con- 
sciousness could take cognizance without an announce- 
ment, we could not from any inner sense or experience 
know of its existence without the Word of God. A 
mere fancy or supposition is too insecure a basis for a 
matter so vital to our souls' peace and comfort. Our 
feelings cannot be witnesses in the case. It is not safe 
to rely upon them even in matters of mere temporal 
moment. The fool may feel wise; the miser may feel 
liberal. They are deceptive. But justification lies wholly 
beyond their domain, and respecting it they have no 



The Means of its Bestowal. 65 

qualifications to bear testimony. It is ridiculous to speak 
of knowing by our feelings, that we have been declared 
heirs of another's property. The declaration will, if it 
is brought to us and believed, undoubtedly produce 
feelings; but these cannot establish the fact upon which 
they rest. The assurance must be founded upon the 
words which announce the fact. The divine promise, 
net the human affections resulting from its reception, 
must render us confident. Even the fruits of the Spirit, 
which must be brought forth in the justified person, 
could not set the conscience at rest; for the works of 
the flesh continue to manifest themselves also, and these 
must keep the soul that seeks its evidence within, in 
constant doubt, if they do not drive it into despair. 
We must have means of God's appointment, through 
which the divine work is done, and find our assurance 
in the divine promise that it is so done, which promise 
faith embraces. In the absence of these we can only 
be "like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and 
tossed." 

It is of prime importance, too, for our assurance 
and peace, that we distinguish the means of grace from 
everything else which may in some respects resemble 
them, and which are therefore frequently confounded 
with them, although they are not channels through 
which God communicates His blessings unto salvation. 
The events of His providence should teach us whole- 
some lessons, but they cannot give peace to the sinner. 
Almsgiving and prayer and other activities of the Chris- 
tian life are indeed necessary and commendable, and 
even have promises annexed ; but they cannot justify the 
condemned culprit. The means by which we manifest 
our state of blessedness, and the means by which we ask 
for blessings and give thanks for their bestowment, are 
not the means through which God confers the blessed- 
3** E 



66 Justification. 

ness which we enjoy and the blessings which we implore. 
The acts of man seeking divine favor or manifesting its 
possession must never be confounded with the acts of 
God bestowing it; and the means of the former must 
never be confounded with the means of the latter. Such 
confusion is dangerous. Its effect is to reduce the di- 
vine to a level with the human, and thus to render the 
former as uncertain and unreliable as the latter. The 
peace of God which passeth understanding can thus 
never be the soul's possession. Justification is an act 
of God conferring an unspeakable gift, and He accom- 
plishes it only through the means of His own choice 
and His own appointment. These are His Word and 
Sacraments. The Bible names no other. To trust in 
any other is superstition, because it is placing reliance 
upon a means which has no divine promise. To trust 
in any other is rebellion against God, because it is an 
arbitrary substitution of means that have no promise 
for those that have. We confide in God's own means 
to effect His merciful ends, because His promises are 
sure, and those who trust in them shall never be put 
to shame. 

Section 2. 

THE WORD OF GOD 

The great means of God's appointment for the ap- 
plication of Christ's merits to sinners, that they may be 
justified, is His Holy Word. This both brings the 
treasures of grace to man and enables him to receive 
them. It is of God's infinite grace that He declares us 
just for Jesus' sake, who satisfied all the demands of 
justice in our stead, and it is of the same infinite grace 
that He enables us to believe the declaration. Both 



The Means of its Bestowal, 67 

the external offer and the internal operation enabling 
us to embrace the offer, take place through the Divine 
Word. Through it the objed of faith is set before us, 
and faith is wrought to appropriate it. To understand 
the doclxine of justification we must keep in view the 
power of the Word in both respects, and observe, at 
the same time, that it is the Gospel, not the Law, which 
brings the blessing and enables us to embrace it. 

The failure to distinguish between the Law and the 
Gospel in the Divine Word is one of the most prolific 
sources of confusion and error in the doctrine of justi- 
fication. The Word of God sets before us both blessings 
and curses, both salvation and damnation. The means 
by which the former is done is the Gospel ; the means 
by which the latter takes place is the Law. Both are 
divine; both have a divine efficacy; but the effects are 
different: the one justifies, while the other condemns. 

The Law comprehends all those portions of Scrip- 
ture, both in the Old and the New Testament, which 
make demands upon man, and threaten punishment in 
case these demands are not satisfied. The requirements, 
however, are not all of the same character. Some of 
the laws promulgated in the Old Testament are not of 
universal obligation: they were designed only for certain 
persons, times, and circumstances. These are called cer- 
emonial and judicial laws. The former were given under 
the old dispensation to foreshadow the blessings of the 
new covenant, and as shadows they passed away when 
Christ, the substance foreshadowed, had come. (Cot. ii. 
17.) The latter were delivered for the government of 
the Jewish State, and were limited, even at the time of 
their promulgation, to the Jewish people. Others are 
binding upon all men for all time. They contain the 
immutable rule of right, which originally was written 
upon the hearts of men, and which, when sin had de- 



68 "Justification. 

feced the writing withm and rendered much of it illegible, 
was written on two tables of stone and externally com- 
municated to mankind through Moses. This is called 
the moral law, the obligation of which is universal and 
perpetual. When we here speak of demands made upon 
us, and menaces of punishment published against us if 
we fail to comply with the requirement, we have this 
moral law in view. "We believe, teach, and confess 
that the law is properly a divine doctrine which teaches 
us what is pleasing to God, and condemns everything 
that is sinful and contrary to God's will. Therefore 
everything that rebukes sin belongs to the preaching 
of the law." (Form. Cone, v. 4.) 

The Gospel embraces all those portions of Scrip- 
ture, both in the New and the Old Testament, which 
offer blessings and set before us promises of grace. It 
is "properly a doctrine which teaches what man, who 
has not kept the law and is condemned by it, should 
believe, namely, that Christ has atoned for all his sin, 
and purchased and acquired for him, without any merit 
on his part, forgiveness of sin, perfect righteousness, 
and eternal life." (lb. v.) The Gospel gives us what 
the law demands of us. It -is proclaimed in the Old 
Testament as well as in the New, although more fully 
and clearly in the latter. It was the comfort of patri- 
archs and prophets before the incarnation, as it has 
been of all the people of God since. It is the only 
means by which the sinner, with the curse of the Law 
impending over him, could or can be justified. "I am 
not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ; for it is the power 
of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to 
the Jew first and also to the Gentile." {Rom. i. 16.) 

The important distinction between Law and Gospel 
is based upon the words of Scripture, in which the dif- 
ference in the character and operations of these two 



The Means oj its Bestowal. 69 

portions of God's Word is exhibited. "The law was 
given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus 
Christ." {John i. 17.) This indicates not only that the 
law is something different from the grace and truth of 
Christ's Gospel, but also that the commandments given 
by Moses do not contain the evangelical truth which 
makes us free and the^ grace which saves the soul. 
This is taught still more clearly in the words of the 
apostle: God "hath made us able ministers of the New 
Testament; not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the 
letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. But if the min- 
istration of death, written and engraven in stones, was 
glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stead- 
fastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his 
countenance, which glory was to be done away, how 
shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glori- 
ous ? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, 
much more doth the ministration of righteousness ex- 
ceed in glory." (2 Cor. iii. 6-9.) To explain this as 
referring to a difference between the written characters 
of the Divine Word — the mere letters of which the 
words are composed — and the grace and life of which 
that Word is the bearer, is doing violence to every law 
of interpretation. The mere letters of the alphabet can 
not kill; and the words formed of these letters are 
sometimes words which are spirit and life, and do not 
kill, but make alive. The letter which killeth is ex- 
pressly stated in the seventh verse, where it is called 
"the ministration of death," to have been "written and 
graven on stones," with such an evident reference to 
Moses that only the blind could fail to see that the 
law is meant. Of this, too, the apostle predicates the 
same efficacy in other places. He tells us that "the 
commandment, which was ordained to life, I found unto 
death" {Rom.vix. 10), "because the law worketh wrath" 



jo Justification. 

(ib. iv. 15). And the expressions "ministration of the 
Spirit" and "ministration of righteousness" correspond 
precisely to what is elsewhere predicated of the Gospel. 
"Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or 
by the hearing of faith?" inquires St. Paul (Gal. iii. 2), 
proclaiming thus that the Spirit is given only through 
the Gospel which is preached* and which faith receives. 
Again he says: "If there had been a law given which 
could have given life, verily righteousness should have 
been by the law. But the Scripture hath concluded all 
under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ 
might be given to them that believe." (Gal. iii. 21, 22.) 
The law works death, condemning the sinner; the Gos- 
pel gives life, saving the condemned. 

"It seems^ to be a light matter," says Luther, "to 
mingle the Law and the Gospel, faith and works, to- 
gether; but it does more mischief than a man's reason 
can conceive; for it not only tarnishes and darkens the 
knowledge of grace, but also takes away Christ with all 
His benefits, and utterly overthrows the Gospel, as Paul 
says in this place (Gal. i. 7). The cause of this great 
evil is our flesh, which, being steeped in sin, sees no 
way to get out but by works, and therefore it would 
live in the righteousness of the law, and rest in the 
trust and confidence of its own works. Therefore it is 
entirely ignorant of the doctrine of faith and grace, 
without which, however, it is impossible for the con- 
science to find rest and peace." "This difference of 
the offices of the Law and Gospel keeps all Christian 
doctrine in its true and proper use." 

The office of the law is not to justify, although it 
has a service to perform in the preparation of the sub- 
ject for the appropriation of justifying grace. The denial 
of its justifying power and design does not involve the 
demal of its perpetual necessity in the world and in the 



The Means of its Bestowal. 71 

Church. Its use is threefold. It serves the purpose of 
restraining the wickedness of men and preserving order. 
It serves as a rule of holy living to the regenerate. It 
serves to show people their sins and reveal the wrath 
of God against them, and thus, indirectly, to lead souls 
to Christ, by disclosing to them their helplessness and 
ruin without Him. Thus it has an office to perform 
even in the work of justification. For "the law was 
our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might 
be justified by faith." {Gal. iii. 24.) Not that the law 
can ever render us just, or give us life; not that we 
should, when we are justified, put our trust in the law. 
"After that faith is come we are no longer under a 
schoolmaster." {lb. 25.) Its work is indirecl:. It shows 
us that we are lost, and thus prepares us to accept the 
proffered help. That which shows us a disease, and 
thus incites us to seek a remedy, is not that which 
heals it; but it is necessary for our healing still, because 
without the conviction that we are sick we will call no 
physician and accept no remedy. The law condemns, 
and reveals that condemnation to the soul, so that de- 
liverance may be sought; but it has no power to deliver 
from the curse which it denounces. 

Justification is not by the law, neither as the law was 
given by Moses, nor as it was expounded by our Saviour, 
much as its searching power was intensified in the latter 
case, and much as the presence of the Gospel in all its 
fullness contributed to its efficiency. "As regards the 
revelation of sin the matter stands thus: the veil of 
Moses hangs before the eyes of all men as long as they 
hear only the preaching of the law, and nothing about 
Christ. Therefore they do not learn from the law truly 
to perceive their sins, and either become presumptuous 
hypocrites, like the Pharisees, or fall into despair, like 
Judas, On this account Christ shows the spiritual im- 



72 Justification. 

port of the law, Mat. v. 21, Rom, vii. 14. Thus the 
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all sin- 
ners, that they ma}' see how great it is, and, being in 
this way directed to the law, may now rightiy learn to 
know their sin, which knowledge Moses alone never 
could have forced upon them." {Form. Cone, v. 7.) 

The means which God uses for the justification of 
the sinner is the blessed Gospel of our Saviour. This 
brings the glad tidings of justification, and works in the 
soul the ability to embrace it. 

All that is necessary for man's salvation has been 
accomplished. The Lamb of God was slain for sinners, 
and taketh away the sins of the world. All righteous- 
ness has been fulfilled by Him. The demands of the 
law have been satisfied. The penalty of sin has been 
borne. There is nothing further necessary than that the 
glad tidings of man's salvation should be preached, and 
that the righteousness of Jesus should be appropriated. 
"Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suf- 
fer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that 
repentance and remission of sins should be preached in 
His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." 
{Luke xxiv. 46, 47.) " Be it known unto you, therefore, 
men and brethren, that through this man is preached 
unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by Him all that 
believe are justified from all things, from which ye 
could not be justified by the law of Moses." (A£ls xiii. 
38, 39.) Tidings of joy cannot be placed before men 
otherwise than by the word announcing them, and the 
joyful news of what God has done for man's salvation 
cannot be brought to its object otherwise than by God's 
Word proclaiming it. This proclamation is the Gospel: 
nothing is Gospel that contains not such tidings. And 
this proclamation is, on God's part, the sinner's justi- 
fication, which is, on man's part, to be appropriated by 



The Means of ih Bestowac. 73 

embracing the proclamation. Our whole debt is paid, 
and the Gospel announces the fad. Its office is not to 
convey information to man of what God can do and 
what, under certain conditions, He is willing to do, but 
of what has been done to compass our salvation, and is 
available for that purpose every moment. "All things 
are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by 
Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of re- 
conciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling 
the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses 
unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of 
reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, 
as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you, 
in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For He 
hath made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin, 
that we might be made the righteousness of God in 
Him." (2 Cor, v. 18-21.) 

This means of justification is effectual not only in 
bringing to the soul the truth that the barrier of sin 
has been removed through Christ, but also in working 
that internal power which is necessary to appropriate 
the truth for the sinner's peace and joy. The efficacy 
of the Divine Word does not consist merely in showing 
sinners the way of salvation, and indicating the means 
by which this may be secured. It would profit us little 
to have such a guide, however safe that guide may be, 
so long as we have no ability to walk in the way indi- 
cated and to use effectually the means exhibited. Nor 
does the pov/er of God's Word consist in the solid 
arguments and strong motives addressed to the mind, 
as though it were of the same character as that of an 
effective human speech* This would avail nothing while 
"the whole head is sick and the whole heart is faint." 
Its power is supernatural. The Holy Spirit is united 
with it, so that its energy is divine, not human. It 
4 



74 Justification. 

exists not without the Spirit. The power of the Gospel 
and the power of the Spirit is the same. To say that 
the Word is impotent is identical with saying that the 
Spirit, who does not merely use it occasionally as His 
instrument, but is inseparably in union with it, is im- 
potent. The supernatural power of the Word of God 
may therefore, in a certain sense, be said to be natural 
to it, as belonging intrinsically to its very nature; with- 
out such power it has no existence. Proofs of this the 
Scriptures supply in abundance. "The words which I 
speak unto you," says our Saviour, "they are spirit and 
they are life." (John vi. 63.) The Gospel is "the power 
of God unto salvation to every one that believeth," 
says St. Paul, Rom. i. 16. And the same apostle de- 
clares: "the word of God is quick and powerful, and 
sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to 
the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints 
and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and in- 
tents of the heart." {Heb. iv. 12.) And again: "For this 
cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when 
ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye 
received it not as the word of men, but, as it is in 
truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also 
in you that believe." (1 Tlies. ii. 13.) Of the same im- 
port also are the declarations of St. Peter and St. James. 
The former says that we "are born again, not of cor- 
ruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, 
which liveth and abideth for ever." (7 Peter 1. 23.) The 
latter exhorts: 'Receive with meekness the engrafted 
word, which is able to save your souls." James i. 21.) 
Precisely the same efficacy is thus ascribed to the Di- 
vine Word as that which is attributed to the Holy 
Spirit who is united with it. It calls, enlightens, justi- 
fies, sanctifies, saves, as it conveys to men the grace 
of our Lord Jesus Christ unto salvation. 



The Means of its Bestowal, 75 

It is on this account that our Lord, when He sent 
forth His disciples to preach the everlasting Gospel, 
said unto them: "Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are 
remitted unto them." When the power of- the Divine 
Word is denied, it is no wonder that people are per- 
plexed at this statement, and that they fall into grievous 
error in attempting to explain it. The Romish Church 
finds in it a justification of her priestly arrogance and 
tyranny, and some Protestant denominations accept the 
Romish interpretation with some modifications, while 
others despair of finding in the words any meaning that 
is not inconsistent with the analogy of faith. The Ro- 
manists assume that oui blessed Lord delegated His 
power of remitting sins to the apostles, and that by 
them it was transmitted by ordination to their succes- 
sors, in an unbroken line down to the present time. 
Some Protestants accept this doctrine of a transfer of 
the divine prerogative to men, but limit it to the apostles 
personally, although no reason that is satisfactory even 
to themselves can be given why, if there was need for 
such a power in the days of the apostles, it should be 
unnecessary now, or whence, as no such limitation is 
mentioned in Scripture, men can have the authority to 
limit it. When the Romish claim is once admitted that 
the divine prerogative can, in some other than a minis- 
terial sense, be delegated to men, the Romanists cer- 
tainly, as against those who limit the power to the 
apostles, have little difficulty in supporting their error. 
When other Protestants refuse to grant what Rome as 
sumes, and yet deny what the Lutheran Church, in 
beautiful harmony with the entire teachings of Scrip- 
ture, believes and confesses, they virtually divest a most 
important and a most consolatory divine declaration of 
all meaning, and labor in the interest of Rome by un- 
dermining the doctrine of the perspicuity of Scripture. 



76 Justification, 

The passage in question confers no inherent power 
for the remission of sins upon sinful mortals. "Who 
can forgive- sins but God only?' 5 It is not the power 
of men, whether in their private or official capacity, that 
is here in view, but the power of the Divine Word. 
The commission is given to preach the Gospel, which 
is God's absolution; and wherever the divine mandate 
is obeyed and the Gospel is preached, a valid and ef- 
fectual absolution is pronounced, which needs only to 
be appropriated by faith in order to be a blissful pos- 
session. The Word of God is just as powerful and 
just as effe&uai when man proclaims it, as when our 
Lord proclaimed it in person. He does not, since He 
is no more visibly present among His people, cease to 
speak to us, and comfort and strengthen and save. 
He is with us still, lo, every day; and His quickening 
Word is with us still. And they who preach the Gos- 
pel bring all its saving power into exercise. This Word 
is the key of heaven. "Verily I say unto you, whatso- 
ever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; 
and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed 
in heaven." {Mat xviii. 18.) The power is God's and 
the means are God's: man merely plies the means 
through which God works, and only in a ministerial 
sense is the effect ascribed to man. The messenger 
brings good tidings from his Master and renders the 
recipient happy; and yet it is the Master, not the mes- 
senger, who is the Author of such happiness. The ab- 
solution is contained in the Gospel, not in the preacher. 

Wherever the Gospel of Christ is preached a de- 
claration of the forgiveness of sins, on the ground of 
His merits, is effectively made, and justification takes 
place; and wherever, by the power of the Holy Spirit 
accompanying the Word, this declaration is believed, 
justification is appropriated. The fact that a great sal- 



The Means oj its Bestowal, ^7 

vation has been effected for all men does not imply, 
as has been shown, that all men actually enjoy that 
salvation. Many are lost, notwithstanding that Jesus 
shed His precious blood to save them. The reason of 
this is that many resist the Holy Ghost, who comes to 
them with all the fullness of Jesus' grace in the Word 
The purchased pardon is offered sincerely to all, since 
God designed and desires that all should be saved; 
and the Gospel, which announces the glad tidings of the 
salvation effected, is an effectual means of bringing it 
into men's possession, not only in the sense that it de- 
clares the accomplished fact, but also in the sense that 
it brings the benefits of the great facts to the sinner's 
soul, and works, where there is no obstinate resistance, 
the faith by which alone those benefits are appropriated. 
The justification of the sinner is not, on God's part, 
made conditional upon his believing. The Divine Word 
does not cease to be true because some men reject it. 
The fact of human redemption is accomplished, whether 
men will hear the glorious tidings or forbear; and the 
divine declaration announcing the fact for man's com- 
fort is true, whether men believe it and rejoice, or deny 
it and despair. Christ's merits are imputed and sin is 
pardoned wherever the Gospel is preached; and when 
the sinner is not in the actual possession of the bless- 
ing, it can only be because he has resisted the Holy 
Spirit, and hindered the working of the faith which em- 
braces it. He remains under condemnation, because he 
rejects the Gospel, which justifies. He that embraces 
the Gospel appropriates the justification which it de- 
clares, and is no longer under the law which condemns, 
To him it is indeed "good tidings of great joy." 



78 Justification. 

Section 3. 

THE HOLY SACRAMENTS. 

There is perhaps no other do&rine of the Word 
of God which has been so frequently and so grossly 
misunderstood or misconstrued, as that of the Holy Sa- 
craments. That they are means of grace in that vague 
sense in which everything that suggests duty or leads 
to reflection upon spiritual things is so denominated, 
Protestants generally concede; but that they are such 
in any proper sense, that they are a6tual vehicles for 
the conveyance of God's grace to the soul, according 
to His own appointment, many doubt and many more 
deny. And not only does the Scriptural do&rine, which 
is so full of consolation, and which is so necessary a 
link in the chain of revealed truth, meet with frequent 
opposition, but it is often even treated as a dangerous 
error, the tendency of which is to undermine the in- 
effably-solacing system of grace through Jesus Christ, 
so clearly set before us in the inspired Word. On this 
account it is all the more necessary to show the impor- 
tant office which the Sacraments perform in the process 
of justification. 

That Holy Baptism and the Lord's Supper are signs 
of grace, few will be disposed to question, even though 
it should not be admitted by all that they exhibit grace. 
The main point to be decided, in the minds of many 
who meet with difficulties in apprehending the doctrine, 
is the question whether they are empty signs, or whether 
they are truthful, and really contain and convey what 
they confessedly signify. To those who cordially accept 
the Word of God as a means of grace in the proper 
sense, bearing with it what the words indicate, and con- 



The Means of its Bestowal. jg 

ferring the blessing which the promise includes, this is 
no intricate problem. The mercy and truth of God, as 
shown in Jesus Christ, and proclaimed in the Scriptures, 
solve it at once. It would be preposterous tc suppose 
that our merciful Father, who so loved us that He gave 
His only Son to die for us all, and who incessantly 
commends this love to us by commanding the Gospel 
to be preached to all nations, and thus imparting to 
men the benefits of Jesus' death, really bestowing by 
His Word what that Word declares Him willing to 
confer upon all, would merely tantalize us with visible 
signs which, though they must mean something, are 
without efficacy in accomplishing what they mean. 

All the objections raised against the doctrine that 
the Sacraments are means of grace hold equally against 
the Word of God as such a means, or against predi- 
cating this of any earthly material. They are, in fact, 
objections against all means of grace, and are as futile 
in the one case as in the other. They merely display 
a misapprehension of the whole gracious economy of 
God. Sometimes well meant, no doubt, they are always 
unhappy, as they disparage the wisdom and mercy of 
God, and turn aside one of the richest streams of con- 
solation. The thoughtful cannot fail to perceive the 
faultiness of a system which, while it supplies gracious 
gifts for the welfare of man, makes no provision for 
their distribution. To charge such an unfortunate over- 
sight upon God, notwithstanding the clear statements 
of His Word, showing us the merciful provision made 
for dispensing His grace, is no innocent mistake that 
can be passed over with indifference. It is dreadful in 
itself and pernicious in its consequences. It impeaches 
the character of Jehovah, because it represents Him as 
not sufficiently wise or sufficiently merciful to form a 
complete plan for man's salvation, there being no means 



80 Justification. 

appointed to convey it. It destroys the' peace of man, 
because it leaves him to grope for the salvation with- 
out knowing where it is to be found. No such theory 
can, with the least semblance of truth, claim Biblical 
support: it is a strong delusion, and nothing more. 

A sacrament is a visible word. Words are signs. 
They signify something. But there are other signs 
besides words. We communicate to each other our 
thoughts by audible signs when we converse orally. 
We write certain characters, which represent the sounds 
uttered in oral converse, and we have visible signs. 
These are still words. We express our emotions by 
actions, and we have visible signs. These are not strictly 
words in the proper sense. But they convey our mean- 
ing, and we call them language. Conveying our mean- 
ing by actions is styled speaking by gesture. Actions 
speak. The Sacraments are actions of God : they speak 
God's pleasure. They are visible words with a plain 
signification, and this signification is divine. God can 
no more deceive us by visible than by audible words. 
He cannot lie. The Word of God, whether audible or 
visible, or both, is quick and powerful. 

It is evident that not every sign is divine. Human 
signs convey human thoughts, and have human power. 
Human signs cannot justify the sinner: they are impo- 
potent to this end, because man is impotent in this 
domain. God's Word alone is the divine power unto 
salvation. This word we find in the Bible. The Bible 
is the criterion by which we distinguish the powerful 
word of God from the powerless word of man. The 
same test must be applied to the visible as to the audible 
word. It is sheer superstition to attribute divine power 
to a human ordinance. If Lutherans did this it would 
be no wonder that others cry out against us. Those 
who are zealous for the honor of God could not do 



The Means of its Bestowal* 81 

otherwise. But Lutherans do not dream of this. The 
visible word of God has divine power; but no other 
word than that which is divine has such power. The 
visible word of God is the Holy Sacraments. 

A sacrament is an action of divine institution in 
which, through an external, visible sign, the grace of 
God is conferred, or, if the subject be already a be- 
liever, that grace is certified and sealed. Two marks 
are essential to it There must, in the first place, be a 
clear expression of God's will that a certain external 
element is to be used, in His name, to accomplish His 
purpose. External elements have no inherent power to 
justify or to sanctify. They can receive it only through 
the divine will and appointment. This appointment we 
have, of course, no right to assume without warrant in 
His written Word. We can believe that a material ele- 
ment will be efficacious to accomplish a spiritual pur- 
pose, only when we have it plainly designated in Holy 
Scripture as divinely appointed for that purpose. The 
natural force of the element is of no avail in the sphere 
of the spiritual. " The water, without the word of God, 
is simply water, and no Baptism." There must, there- 
fore, in the second place, be a clear promise of God 
set before us in His Word that, by the application of 
a designated element, divine grace shall be communi- 
cated. Without such designation of the element, and 
such promise annexed to the command obligating us to 
apply it, it would be presumptuous to introduce a rite 
as necessary, and superstitious to expect: any spiritual 
benefit from it. Of such divine ordinances, in which the 
use of a material element is commanded and grace is 
promised, there are but two mentioned in the Bible, 
which are the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's 
Supper. These are the visible word of God. 

This visible word has precisely the same power as 
4* F 



82 y testification. 

that which is audible. When God declares, by the act 
of Baptism, that He is willing to cleanse the soul, even 
supposing that no more were declared, we have the as- 
surance that the cleansing is effected by the act. There 
is no condition to be fulfilled before that will can be- 
come operative. The blood of Jesus does cleanse from 
all sin, and this only needs application. To apply His 
cleansing blood, Baptism is instituted and administered. 
There is no reason whatever why that which is signified 
should not take place now. Any objection to its taking 
place while the act is performed, would hold equally 
good against its taking place at any time. The Lord 
is willing now, and the sinner needs the cleansing now: 
why should it not now be accomplished? God's good- 
ness is not dependent upon our holiness, and His will- 
ingness to give is not conditioned by our fitness or 
willingness to receive. He offers the gift graciously, 
whether men will receive it or not. Why not then just 
as well exercise the grace when the visible word pro- 
claims it as at any subsequent period? How should 
we ever know, if the sign is an empty one now, when 
He will be willing to impart the grace which it signi- 
fies? By what means should we expect it to be offered, 
if the offer is not made when the announcement is 
made? And how shall we believe now, while we assume 
that now, the sign being nugatory, nothing is exhibited 
as an object of faith? Faith can be no random guess, 
and God's mercy cannot permit our salvation to hang 
upon uncertainties. 

But there is more declared in the baptismal act 
than a general will of God to cleanse us. He assures 
us that what that act signifies, is really and sincerely 
intended as His effectual will at the very moment of 
its declaration, and that the promise could not be more 
certain if the action were translated into the corre* 



The Means of its Bestowal. 83 

sponding audible words: "I, the Lord, cleanse you from 
all your sins." To be certified of this we need but turn 
to the Scriptural statements concerning this Sacrament. 
"The like figure whereunto even Baptism doth also 
now save us; not the putting away of the filth of the 
flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God." 
(7 Peter hi. 21.) Ye are buried with Christ "by Bap- 
tism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the 
faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him 
from the dead." {Col. ii. 12.) 'As many of us as were 
baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death ; 
therefore we are buried with Him by Baptism into 
death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead 
by the glory of the Father, even so we also should 
walk in newness of life." {Rom. vi. 3, 4.) 'As many of 
you as have been baptized into Christ have put on 
Christ." {Gal. hi. 27.) "Peter said unto them, Repent, 
and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of 
Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins." {Acts ii. 38.) 
"And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, 
and wash away thy sins." {Acts xxii. 16.) "Jesus an- 
swered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man 
be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into 
the kingdom of God." {John iii. 5.) "Not by works 
of righteousness which we have done, but according to 
His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regenera- 
tion and renewing of the Holy Ghost." ( Titus iii. 5.) 

It is needless to multiply passages. It would seem 
impossible for an unbiased mind, from the statements of 
Holy Scripture respecting the design and efficacy of this 
Sacrament, to receive the impression that it is a sign 
without true significance, or that the thing signified is 
separated from it. It effects precisely what it declares. 
It is the power of God unto salvation, because it is 
His visible word, the import and efficacy of which is 



84 Justification. 

rendered unmistakably clear by the audible Word. To 
trust in it is not putting confidence in the natural force 
of a material element, nor in the efficacy of a human 
ceremony, but is believing in God's grace and power, 
who works effectually through the means of His own 
appointment, according to the promise expressly given. 
So when God declares, by the administration of the 
Holy Supper, that He is willing to feed the soul with 
the bread of life, as earthly bread is given for the nour- 
ishment of the body, the thing signified accompanies 
the sign. Aside from the clear statements of the Holy 
Spirit, ill the Scriptures, with regard to the Sacrament, 
the whole economy of grace implies this. What sem- 
blance of a reason could be assigned why that heavenly 
food should not be administered at the same time that 
the sign declares God's gracious will to feed us? We 
need it then, and if God is willing to give it, what 
should hinder its bestowal then? Why should the table 
be spread, and the hungry guests be invited to seat 
themselves, a sign being thus given that the host is 
ready and willing to feed them, and then this sign be 
belied and the guests mocked by passing empty dishes 
around? God forbid that we should think thus meanly 
of our blessed Lord and His Holy Supper! He is 
true, though all men be liars. His signs are not empty 
and deceptive. The expectations which He excite?, He 
always satisfies; the gifts which He declares Himself 
willing to bestow, He actually imparts. In the Holy 
Sacrament of the Altar the bread of heaven, which the 
soul needs for its nourishment, is really communicated. 
"Jesus took bread," the inspired record tells us, "and 
blessed it, and brake it. and gave it to the disciples, 
and said, Take, eat; this is My body. And He took 
the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, 
Drink ye all of it; for this is My blood of the New 



The Means of its Bestowal. 85 

Testament, which is shed for many for the remission 
of sins." (Mat. xxvi. 26-28.) Again and again it is re- 
peated that our Saviour's precious body and blood are 
communicated to the recipient of the bread and wine 
in the Sacrament. That body which was sacrificed and 
that blood which was shed for the remission of man's 
sins, is really and truly imparted, in and with the 
bread and wine, to every communicant, that whilst he 
orally receives it he may spiritually appropriate its ben- 
efits. What our dear Lord has secured for us by the 
shedding of His blood, is not represented to our minds 
as an absent blessing by a symbol of the body given 
and the blood shed; but it is set before us as a present 
gift in the very body and very blood on which our 
everlasting life depends. He gives His body and blood 
under the bread and wine to every communicant, that 
all may with the heart embrace the saving efficacy of 
the gracious gift which they receive with the mouth. 

Cavilers ask how these things can be, that we should 
eat the Lord's body, just as they ask how it is pos- 
sible for a man to be born again, seeing he is born 
already. It is enough for believers to know that it is 
so, and to bless the Lord's holy name that the happy 
tidings are true. He is the true bread for the soul. 
If others desire only earthly bread, and deny that His 
body is given us in the Supper, we can pity them; but 
we cannot permit their scruples to mar our joy in the 
possession of the infinitely more precious bread that 
cometh down from heaven. We will not do violence to 
the plainest texts of Scripture, and be deprived of the 
richest comfort for our pains. "The cup of blessing 
which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood 
of Christ?" (7 Cor. x. 16.) "Wherefore, whosoever 
shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord un- 
worthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the 



86 Justification. 

Lord." (lb. xi. 27.) The Sacrament of the Altar brings 
what it imports, being no sign without significance, but 
a divine means of grace, full of power and blessing. 

The Sacraments are a visible word of the Gospel, 
not of the law. They signify the gracious will of God 
unto salvation, and accomplish that gracious will. Their 
design is not to work wrath or to condemn the sinner, 
That is the office of the law, not of the Gospel. The 
means of grace are not means of damnation. Baptism 
is never said to consign the transgressor to merited pun- 
ishment. It saves. Of the Lord's Supper it is stated, 
indeed, that "he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, 
eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discern- 
ing the Lord's body." (1 Cor. xi. 29.) But this damna- 
tion is not effected through the Sacrament as its means. 
God offers forgiveness of sins through the Sacrament. 
But those who reject the proffered grace remain in 
their sins, upon which the law denounces damnation. 
This is the result privitively of the unworthy reception 
of our Lord's body and blood, which was given for 
justification, but which, being rejected by the unbeliev- 
ing soul, leaves it under condemnation. But it becomes 
thus the occasion, also, of aggravated sin, upon which 
the law pronounces its curse. The grace of God unto 
salvation is slighted and refused by the unworthy com- 
municant; the body and blood of Jesus are treated 
as common bread and wine, which have not the least 
spiritual efficacy; the whole merciful institution of God 
for man's deliverance from the curse is ungratefully 
desecrated and practically despised. In this way sin is 
added to sin; and that which was designed unto salva- 
tion becomes the occasion of damnation. The unworthy 
participant in the Supper eats and drinks the Lord's 
body and blood orally, without appropriating it spirit- 
ually, and is thus guilty of a crime which merits pun- 



i 



The Means of its Bestowal. 87 

ishment. In this sense he eats and drinks damnation 
to himself by his failure to discern the Saviour's body 
and blood. These convey a blessing, not a curse; but 
the law inflicts its curse upon those who despise the 
blessing. The conception of means of grace which 
convey damnation involves a contradiction: it postulates 
a remedy that not only does not heal but destroys. To 
say that the Gospel or the Sacraments are the means 
whereby death is brought, is to deny that, in the proper 
sense, they are means of grace at all. They bring jus- 
tification, not condemnation. It is the rejection of their 
justifying grace that condemns. 

That Baptism, as well as the word of the Gospel, 
is a means of justification, is manifest from the pas- 
sages of Scripture already quoted. For that by which 
we put on Christ, receive remission of sins, and are 
saved, must certainly be a means by which the sinner 
is justified. But this is expressly and plainly predicated 
of Baptism. "As many of you as have been baptized 
into Christ have put on Christ." (GaL iii. 27.) Those 
who have put on Christ are manifestly clothed in His 
righteousness; they have "put on the new man, which 
after God is created in righteousness and true holi- 
ness." (Eph. iv. 24.) This involves the remission of 
sins, which would, on that account, be plainly indicated 
as an effect of Baptism, even if this were not expressly 
stated. But the Bible does make direct statements to 
this effect. "Be baptized every one of you, in the 
name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins." (A£ls 
ii. 38.) Every place of Scripture which speaks of the 
efficacy of Baptism, without a single exception, ascribes 
to it such justifying and saving power. 

The same is manifest also in regard to the Holy 
Supper. "He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave 
it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is My 



88 Justification. 

blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many 
for the remission of sins." {Mat. xxvi. 27, 28.) All that 
was secured for us by the sacrifice upon the cross is 
communicated to us through the body that was sacri- 
ficed and the blood that was shed. The sinner's justi- 
fication is dependent upon the merits of Christ, for the 
application of which the Sacrament is a divinely-ap- 
pointed means. Therefore Luther says, in the Small 
Catechism, that the benefit of eating and drinking the 
Lord's body and blood "is shown us by these words, 
'given and shed for you, for the remission of sins*; 
namely, that in the Sacrament forgiveness of sin, life, 
and salvation are given us through these words. For 
where there is forgiveness of sin, there is also life and 
salvation." 

The difficulty which • many find in the way of ac- 
cepting the Sacraments as actual means of justification 
would be obviated, if they would but consider that they 
are means of divine appointment, through which God is 
pleased to bestow gifts upon men. If they were mere 
human ceremonies, we could readily understand the 
scruples of Christians who put their trust in God, and 
not in man and man's devices. It would be a gross 
sin to put any trust in such human ordinances, which 
could not possibly justify. But the Sacraments are acts 
of God and have divine efficacy. God deals with men 
through Baptism and the Holy Communion, and it is 
no indication of reverence to deny the power of God 
because He chooses to exert it through His Word in 
connection with material elements. He is willing to save 
us all for Christ's sake, and there is no danger that 
men will indulge in false hopes when they rely upon 
His gracious operations through means of His own 
choice, to which He has annexed the promises of His 
Word. 



The Means of its Bestowal. 89 

Section 4. 

THE DIVINE BESTOWAL NOT THE HUMAN POSSESSION. 

The Word of God and the Holy Sacraments, as the 
divinely-appointed means of bestowing justification, do 
not produce their designed effects by the mere per- 
formance of the work prescribed. They are the vehicles 
through which grace is offered: but the means of its 
bestowal do not necessarily put the subject in possession 
of that which they offer. There are gross misappre- 
hensions of the Biblical doclrine in vogue, on the basis 
of which many are led to rejecl it as inconsistent with 
the analogy of faith, and thus unscriptural. They sup- 
pose the doclrine as confessed by the Lutheran Church 
to involve the affirmation that every one who uses the 
means is unquestionably saved: a gross error, the dan- 
ger of which Lutherans perceive fully as well as others. 
This misapprehension confounds the Scriptural doclrine 
with human opinions which the Lutheran Church em- 
phatically renounces. 

One of these opinions involves the denial of all that 
is essential to the conception of means of grace, and is 
in direct conflict with the truth which the Scriptures 
teach. It might seem strange that such a notion should 
ever have been mistaken for the truth which we con- 
fess; but the confusion is to some extent accounted for 
by the fa6t that it, too, claims what we call the means 
of grace to be saving ordinances. It consists in the 
error that salvation is the divine reward for the human 
act of obedience in using them. According to this the 
blessing is not graciously conferred through the means 
as their channel, but rather without all means, the theory 
involving no provision for the impartation of the gift. 
4** 



90 Justification. 

The whole conception is legal, and it has no room for 
gifts of grace in the proper sense. It assumes human 
power to please God and human merit in exercising 
that power according to His holy will. The use of the 
divine ordinances is conceived as a meritorious work, 
furnishing to God the motive r or imparting the blessing. 
They are thus rather the ground than the means of 
justification. The theory ascribes no saving contents to 
the Word and Sacraments; it imputes to them no in- 
strumenta 1 power : n conferring salvation. It treats them 
as legal ordinances, requiring obedience, and claims 
that obedience in this case, as in all other legal obser- 
vances, secures blessings to the obedient. They are 
saving ordinances in the same sense in which good 
works in general are claimed to have saving power. 
The Pelagian error, against which the doctrine of jus- 
tification by faith is a constant protest, underlies the 
whole theory. With those who oppose it we are, so far 
as this opposition is concerned, in perfect harmony. 
But it must not be overlooked that the doclrine in 
question does not represent the Word and the Sacra- 
ments as means for the bestowal of justification: it 
treats them rather as ordinances of a legal character, 
by the observance of which man justifies himself. 

The other opinion with which the Biblical doctrine 
is sometimes confounded, and which is, therefore, some- 
times imputed to the Lutheran Church, is that which 
assumes the existence of a natural power in the means 
of grace to accomplish the end for which they were 
appointed. According to this the effect is produced as 
it were by magic. The administration is all that is 
requisite to produce the result, just as the medicine 
which has the necessary remedial properties need only 
be administered to remove the disease. The attitude of 
the subject is thought in no way to affect the efficacy 



The Means of its Bestowal. 9 i 

in his soul of the means used. Every one who hears 
the Gospel with its gracious absolution is supposed to 
be in the actual possession of immunity from the curse, 
because it pronounces and, in pronouncing, brings the 
forgiveness of sin. Every baptized person is supposed 
to be saved, because Baptism was instituted to be the 
washing of regeneration. Every communicant is sup- 
posed to have salvation, because the Holy Supper was 
instituted to bestow the Lord's body and blood, the 
spiritual eating and drinking of which secures eternal 
life. It is not thought necessary to have any reference 
to the spiritual condition of the subject — the means 
having the power in them, in all cases, to produce the 
designed effect. While we insist, according to the Scrip- 
tures, that the unbelief of man cannot render void the 
faith of God, and that therefore His means are the 
vehicles of saving grace, whether man will believe or 
not, we yet heartily concur in the rejection of the human 
figment that the mere administration of these means in 
all cases produces the results for the accomplishment 
of which they were instituted. 

The means of imparting the grace of God and the 
means of embracing it are not one and the same. The 
Lord has grace for all, and through the appointed 
means offers it to all. Jesus has tasted death for every 
man, and His merits avail for the justification of every 
man. These are imputed to men, and the Divine Word 
and the Holy Sacraments are appointed to convey the 
blessing. But not every one for whom wealth is de- 
signed and to whom it is offered is necessarily rich; 
some may reject it, and some, having accepted, may 
afterwards neglect it and loose it. Not every one to 
whom God declares His absolution for Jesus' sake ap- 
propriates it. Some reject it and remain in their sins. 
The Holy Sacraments, as well as the Word of God, 



9 2 Justified Hon . 

always contain and convey the justifying grace. In no 
case is the fault God's that the baptized sinner is not 
justified. He that believeth not shall be damned, al- 
though God desired that he should be saved, and freely 
offered him salvation through the means which he ap- 
pointed to this end. While the Bible teaches that 
these means always bear with them the divine power 
to justify, so that the subject is always without excuse, 
it does not give the least countenance to the opinion 
that the administration of the means, or the making of 
an effectual offer, is all that is needed to put the sub- 
ject in actual possession of the blessing offered. 

The Reformers, when they set forth the great com- 
fort of the Gospel and the Sacraments, were unwearied 
in urging faith as the means necessary to embrace it, 
and in warning against the Romish error of trusting in 
the mere work performed, independently of the reception 
of the divine gift. Thus in her Apology the. Lutheran 
Church says: "Here we must freely condemn all the 
scholastics and their false doctrines, that those who 
simply use the Sacraments and do not oppose their 
operation obtain, ex opere operato, the grace of God, 
even if the heart at the time has no good thoughts. 
But it is clearly a Jewish error to hold that we are 
justified by works and external ceremonies, without faith, 
and although the heart be not engaged therein; yet 
this error is promulgated far and wide through all the 
papal territory and churches. St. Paul (Rom. iv. 9-1 1) 
denies that Abraham was justified through circumcision, 
and asserts that it was a sign appointed to exercise and 
strengthen faith. We therefore say that the proper use 
of the Sacraments requires faith to believe the divine 
promises and receive the promised grace w T hich is offered 
through the Sacraments and the Word. Now this is the 
obvious and proper use of the Holy Sacraments, upon 



The Means of its BestowaL 93 

which our hearts and consciences can firmly rely. For 
the divine promises can be accepted through faith alone. 
Now as the Sacraments are external signs and seals of 
the promises, their proper use requires faith; for when 
we receive the Sacrament of the body and blood of 
Christ, our Lord clearly says, 'This cup is the new 
testament.' (Luke xxii. 20.) We should firmly believe, 
then, that the grace and remission of sins promised in 
the New Testament are imparted to us. This we should 
receive in faith, and thereby console our alarmed, timid 
hearts, and rest assured that the word and promises of 
Gcd cannot fail, but are as sure, nay, surer than if a 
new voice or a new miracle were given from heaven 
to certify us of grace. What would a miracle benefit us 
if it were not believed? Here we are speaking of 
special faith, namely, the assurance that our sins are 
forgiven us ; not of the general faith which believes that 
there is a God. This proper use of the Sacraments 
really consoles and refreshes the heart. But we cannot 
too carefully consider or speak too freely of the abuses 
and errors introduced by the pernicious, shameful, and 
impious doctrine of the opus operatum; namely, that the 
mere use of the Sacraments, the work performed, makes 
us just before God and secures His grace, even without 
a good disposition of the heart." (Art. xiii. 18-23.) 

The efficacy of the means of grace is always present 
in them, and is the same in the Sacraments as in the 
Word of God. They are divine means to impart the 
benefits secured for us through our blessed Redeemer. 
They all contain the power of God, of whose gracious 
will they are expressions. Baptism and the Eucharist 
are not mere water and mere bread and wine. These 
could have no spiritual effect. The divine word of in- 
stitution and of promise is joined to these material 
elements, and this word is always effectual, whether 



94 Justification, 

with or without the elements. The grace of God is 
conveyed in Baptism to begin the work of salvation in 
the soul of the infant; it is communicated in the Holy- 
Supper to promote and confirm the work already begun; 
it is bestowed through the written and preached Word 
to the same ends. In all cases salvation is by the 
means, and in all cases the means contain it and convey 
it. But in all cases the power of God thus conveyed 
must, if the soul is to be saved by it, be appropriated 
by faith. God does not justify and save the sinner in 
spite of himself. The means bestow justification. They 
proclaim the gracious pardon for Christ's sake as a 
consolatory fact. They work in the soul the ability to 
believe the fact, which is foolishness to the natural man. 
They exhibit the ground of true peace and joy to the 
sinner, and supply the power to rejoice in it. But all 
this may be resisted. The sinner may cast from him 
the glorious treasures which are offered, and thus, not- 
withstanding the riches of grace offered to him, remain 
under condemnation. 

In exhibiting the doctrine of Justification we must 
therefore proceed a step further, and point out the sub- 
jective condition of the actual possession of the grace 
which is objectively present in the Word of God and 
the Holy Sacraments, and offered through them when- 
ever and wherever these means of grace are adminis- 
tered. 



CHAPTER IV. 
THE MEANS OF ITS RECEPTION. 



THE bestowal of a spiritual gift does not involve 
its appropriation by those for whom it is designed. 
We have before adverted to the fa<5t that the failure to 
observe this is a prolific source of confusion and mis- 
apprehension in the doctrine of Justification. Christ has 
redeemed all men, and the means of grace convey the 
benefits of the redemption to all their subjects. The 
treasures of salvation have been secured, and arrange- 
ments have been made for their gratuitous distribution. 
But not all to whom these treasures are offered, are in 
the actual possession of them. They must be received 
as well as bestowed. The soul in its natural condition 
has them not and cannot apprehend them. There is a 
hand that gives and a hand that takes. God extends His 
gracious hand to justify the sinner in His blessed Word 
and Sacraments. But He also creates in us a spiritual 
hand by which the precious gift may be appropriated. 
This hand is faith, which is the only means of the re- 
ception, as the Word of God and the Holy Sacraments 
are the only means of the bestowal, of justification. 
"Being justified by faith, we have peace with God 
through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Rom. v. i.) 



o 6 Justification, 



Section i. 

NO MEANS OF RECEPTION BESIDES FAITH. 

It has, in the previous chapter, been shown that 
there is no ground of a sinner's justification besides the 
grace of God in His dear Son. "Other foundation can 
no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." 
(/ Cor. iii. n.) But as the grace of God must be appro- 
priated, otherwise the sinner remains in his natural state 
of condemnation, it is of the utmost importance clearly 
to fix in our minds the truth, that the only means of 
such appropriation is faith. 

The Scriptures, in many places, expressly mention 
faith as such means, and they mention no other. This 
silence of Scripture must alone, in a matter of such 
grave moment, be considered decisive. It would con- 
flict with all that God has been pleased to make known 
to us of Himself and His benevolent purposes, to sup- 
pose that there are ways of apprehending justifying 
grace of which He has ^iven us no information. The 
love which sent the Saviour to die for us could not 
withhold from us the knowledge of any means by which 
the benefits of that death might be made ours. "He 
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he 
that believeth not shall be damned." 

Nor are there any other means conceivable by which 
the grace offered in the Gospel could be appropriated. 
It is a grievous and a mischievous error to suppose that 
something must De done on our part to render the merits 
of Christ available. We must recall to the reader's mind 
the fact that the salvation of man is already wrought out, 
and that it only needs distribution and appropriation to 
render it the sinner's individual possession. The glad 



The Means of its Reception. 97 

tidings announcing the fact of the redemption are not 
something to be done, but something to be believed; 
and he that believes them enjoys them. The important 
distinction between the Law and the Gospel is too often 
overlooked even by those who admit it to be well 
founded, and the result is confusion in regard to the 
nature and means of justification. Good news avail for 
us only when we appropriate them by believing them. 
No exercise of our natural powers, no personal .ef- 
forts of any description, can secure to us the benefits 
of the atonement. They are offered freely, and all that 
we need is to embrace them. Conviction and senti- 
ment and volition are all very well in their sphere. 
But no logical power can convince us of facts which 
rest, and can rest, only upon the testimony of God, so 
long as the word of His testimony is rejected by un- 
belief. No skill in persuasion can arouse our sensibilities 
in regard to objects whose very existence we deny. No 
exercise of will can make divine facts to order, or bring 
to our souls the comfort which depends upon such 
facts. We may deceive ourselves and we may be de- 
ceived. We may even act upon the persuasion that 
certain propositions are true, while the only ground 
upon which their truth could rest is renounced. We 
are sometimes imposed upon by sophists, and sometimes 
practice sophistry upon ourselves. But the fires test our 
intellectual work and burn the hay and stubble. Sophis- 
tries cannot endure the hour and power of temptation. 
When the mind is aroused to examine its furniture, it 
cannot hold as a truth what involves a contradiction, or 
what is a palpable absurdity. If it is stated to us as 
a fact that a wealthy friend has, in his will, named us 
as heirs to ali his property, we may strive to secure the 
benefit of the information by thinking about it, and ex- 
citing our feelings in reference to it, and exercising the 
5 g 



98 Justification. 

will respecting it; but, after all, there is nothing that 
avails us anything save simply believing it. God sends 
His message of mercy to us, and at His word we are 
to be comforted. If this affords us no solace and no 
joy by merely appropriating it as true, we can have no 
comfort and no peace. It is right to think about it 
frequently and well; it is right that our feelings become 
enlisted in a matter so cheering and so glorious; it is 
right that our will be brought under its blessed influence 
and lead us to appropriate action: but only he who 
believes it has it and profits by it. There is no other 
means than faith to receive the proffered grace. 

"Some earnestly contend against the word sola, alone; 
yet St. Paul clearly says {Rom. iii. 28) : ' Therefore we 
conclude that a man is justified by faith without the 
deeds of the law.' Again (Epk. ii. 8), ' It is the gift of 
God, not of yourselves, not of works, lest any man 
should boast'; and the same in Romans iii. 24. Now if 
this word, this exclusiva sola (the expression alone, 
which excludes everything else,) is so objectionable to 
some, they may erase these words also, wherever found 
in the Epistles of St. Paul: ' through grace' 'not of 
works,' 'the gift of God? &c, 'lest any man should boast? 
and the like; for they are very decidedly exclusive. 
The words 'through grace' exclude merit and all works 
whatsoever." {Apology, Art. iv. 73, 74.) There is no 
merit in man by which he could be accounted righteous 
before God; there is no power in man by which he 
could appropriate the righteousness which Christ has 
secured for him. "For by grace are ye saved through 
faith." (Bph. ii. 8.) Faith is the only means to embrace 
the only Saviour. 



The Means of its Reception. 99 



Section 2. 

FAITH THE DESIGNATED MEANS OF RECEPTION. 

In the very nature of the case faith is suggested to 
us as the only possible means by which justification can 
be appropriated. God states consolatory facts and sets 
before us cheering promises, and we cannot even con- 
ceive a method for their appropriation other than that 
of believing them. But we are not left to determine 
the means by mere inference. Language cannot give 
clearer expression, to a truth than is given in Scripture 
to the doctrine that the sinner receives justification by 
faith alone. 

The passages which enunciate this truth are so abun- 
dant that we must content ourselves with a mere selection. 
Thus St. Paul declares: "Be it known unto you, there- 
fore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached 
unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by Him all that 
believe are justified from all things, from which ye could 
not be justified by the law of Moses." {Acls xiii. 38, 39.) 
The same apostle writes to the Romans: "Therefore 
we conclude that a man is justified by faith, without 
the deeds of the law." {Rom. iiL 28.) Of the same im- 
port, excluding all participation of natural powers in 
the appropriation of justification, are his words to the 
Galatians: "We, who are Jews by nature, and not sin- 
ners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified 
by the works of the law, but by the faith of jesus Christ, 
even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might 
be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works 
of the law ; for by the works of the law shall no flesh 
be justified." {Gal. ii. 15, 16.) Again, he says to the 
Philippians that his great aim is to be found in Christ, 



i oo Justified Hon 8 

"not having mine own righteousness, which is of the 
law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the 
righteousness which is of God by faith." {Phil. iii. 9.) 
It is upon such clear and explicit statements of the 
Holy Ghost that our fathers based the article on Justi- 
fication in the Augsburg Confession, which declares: "It 
is taught further that we cannot obtain righteousness 
and the forgiveness of sin before God by our own 
merits, works, and atonement; but that we obtain the 
remission of sins and are justified before God by grace, 
for Christ's sake, through faith, if we believe that Christ 
suffered for us, and that for His sake our sins are re- 
mitted unto us, and righteousness and eternal life are 
bestowed on us. For God regards this faith and imputes 
it as righteousness in His sight, as Paul says, Romans 
iii. and iv." 

Those who duly weigh the statements of Scripture 
will readily perceive why the Lutheran Church used the 
exclusive particles in stating this doctrine, and earnestly 
defended their use, as she still does, against the heresy 
of Rome. We are not only permitted to say that man 
is justified by faith alone, but we are required thus to 
speak, in order to express the full meaning of the 
Biblical statements. For, according to these, faith is 
manifestiy the only means of appropriating justification. 
This is clear from the evidences which have been ad- 
duced, to which, because of the great importance of 
this point, we add the following: 

1. — If faith alone did not justify, we must ascribe such 
power either to works alone, or to works in conjunction 
with faith. But the Scriptures expressly deny that jus- 
tification is the effect of man's obedience to the law; 
nay more, they deny that the deeds of the law have 
any part in producing such effect. For St. Paul says: 
"To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that 



The Means of its Reception, 101 

justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteous- 
ness." (Rom. iv. 5.) " For by grace are ye saved, through 
faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 
not of works, lest any man should boast." (Eph. ii. 8, 9.) 
"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, 
but according to His mercy He saved us." ( Titus iii. 5.) 
As justification is not by works, neither in whole nor 
in part, it must be by faith alone. 

2. — Faith alone is represented in Scripture as appre- 
hending the promises of God. No other means is 
named for their appropriation. Jesus declares to the 
woman who had an issue of blood: "Daughter, be of 
good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole." (Mat. 
ix. 22.) To another He said: u Thy faith hath saved 
thee; go in peace." (Luke vii. 50.) "To as many as 
received Him, to them gave He power to become the 
sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." 
(John i. 12.) "He that believeth on the Son hath ever- 
lasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not 
see life." (lb. iii. 36.) " Being justified by faith we have 
peace with God." (Rom. v. 1.) This is the uniform 
mode of speaking in the Scriptures. Wherever the 
means of embracing the Gospel is mentioned, faith is, 
without an exception, represented as such means. From 
this it is not only allowable to conclude that there is 
no other means, but it is necessary so to conclude. 
Justification is therefore appropriated by faith alone. 

3. — The declaration that we are justified through 
grace and freely, or gratuitously, implies that it is by 
faith alone. St. Paul affirms that we are "justified freely 
by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ 
Jesus." (lb. iii. 24.) "Now to him that worketh is the 
reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him 
that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth 
the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." 



i o 2 Justification. 

(lb. iv. 4, 5.) " And if by grace, then is it no more of 
works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be 
of works, then is it no more of grace: otherwise work 
is no more work." (Id. xi. 6.) There can be no desert 
required on our part to secure justification, for then this 
would not be a free gift of God's grace. What God 
is presumed to owe us in consideration of our sup- 
posed merit cannot, without involving a contradiction, 
be thought a gratuitous gift. He bestows justification 
freely and graciously; therefore it must be by faith 
alone, without the deeds of the law. 

4. — If anything besides faith were required to justify 
the sinner, it could not be said that every believer is 
justified and saved. For if faith is not the only means 
of appropriating justifying grace, certainly some who 
have faith would be found without the other necessary 
qualities, and accordingly would not be justified. But 
the Scriptures assert that all who have faith are justified 
and saved, no other quality being represented as neces- 
sary. "For God so loved the world that He gave His 
only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him 
should not perish, but have everlasting life." (Johnm. 16.) 
"To Him give all the prophets witness, that through 
His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive re- 
mission of sins." (A£ls x. 43.) " I am not ashamed of 
the Gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto 
salvation to every one that believeth." (Rom. i. 16.) As 
every one that believes is declared to be justified, it is 
evident that faith alone appropriates the grace of justi- 
fication. 

5. — To this must be added, the earnest warnings 
which it pleased the Holy Ghost, by exhibiting the 
pernicious consequences of such procedure, to give us 
against substituting any other means for faith. "For if 
they which are of the law be heirs," says St. Paul, 



The Means of its Reception. 103 

"faith is made void, and the promise made of none 
effect." (lb. iv. 14.) If there were any other means of 
securing justification, then faith, of which the Gospel 
speaks so much, would be futile, and the cheering pro- 
mises which faith embraces would be a dear delusion. 
"But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that 
the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to 
them that believe." (Gal. hi. 22.) That promise is not a 
delusion, but a precious reality, and faith appropriates it 
to the soul's unspeakable comfort. Those who seek some 
other means of justification are pursuing a perilous path. 
Words of more solemn import cannot be uttered than 
those which the apostle addresses to such self-deceivers : 
"Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of 
you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. 
For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of right- 
eousness by faith." (lb. v. 4, 5.) Those who seek to be 
justified by some other means than faith make faith 
void, nullify the gracious promise, make Christ of no 
effect to themselves, and fall from grace. Therefore jus- 
tification must be by faith alone. 

Against the plain and explicit teaching of Scripture, 
objections are made by some persons, on the ground 
that St. James seems to point out another means of 
justification when he says: "But wilt thou know, O 
man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abra- 
ham our father justified by works, when he had offered 
Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith 
wrought with his works, and by works was faith made 
perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which saith, 
Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him 
for righteousness : and he was called the friend of God. 
Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and 
not by faith only." (James ii. 20-24.) This appears to 
be in conflict with the doctrine which has been pre- 



1 04 Justifica Hon . 

sented as the explicit teaching of the Bible, and the 
Romanists have not failed to make the best possible 
use of the seeming discrepancy to bring the consolatory 
doctrine of justification by faith into disrepute. But the 
truth of God shall stand in spite of all assaults. 

It is unquestionably a sound principle of Biblical in- 
terpretation that two passages of the Scriptures cannot 
be fully assumed to contradict each other. The Holy 
Ghost cannot move one author to write what is in con- 
flict with that which He has dictated to another The 
passages in which He has expressed the doctrine of 
the sinner's justification by faith are as abundant and 
as clear as those stating any doctrine of the Christian 
system. These cannot, without doing violence to a law 
of interpretation which commends itself as just to every 
reasonable person, be invalidated. The single passage 
in St. James must be explained in harmony with the 
numerous texts which it seems to contradict, according 
to the apostolic rule: "Let us prophesy according to 
the proportion of faith." {Rom. xii. 6.) Such an ex- 
planation can be given without doing violence to the 
words of St. James, and without subjecting ourselves to 
the charge of wresting the Scriptures. 

Let it be distinctly understood, what is so plain in 
the argumentation of -the chapter before us, that St. 
James is contending against all hollow pretences and 
heartless words. He condemns the feigned faith which 
shows partiality to the rich and despises the poor. He 
shows that all professions which are denied in practice 
are thus convicted of hypocrisy. He exhibits the dif- 
ference between saying that we have faith and proving 
that we have it by corresponding deeds.. "What doth 
it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, 
and have not works? Can faith save him?" The ref- 
erence here is obviously not to the living faith which 



The Means of its Reception. 105 

embraces Christ and which works by love, but to the 
pretended faith which has not works. Can such faith 
save the soul? It is the sheerest delusion to assume 
that it can; and against this dangerous delusion the 
apostle raises his voice in warning. "If a brother or a 
sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one 
of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed 
and filled ; notwithstanding ye give them not those things 
which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? 
Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone." 
Such a faith profits no one: it blesses no object and 
secures no blessing for the subject. It is faith in pro- 
fession, but not in fact It is a dead thing which em- 
braces not Christ and labors not for the welfare of man. 
It does not justify. If any one should comfort himself 
with it, because it accepts the existence of a God, he is 
informed that this is a false hope, as it rests upon a 
dead faith. "Thou believest that there is one God: 
thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble." 
The belief in the existence of one God does not con- 
stitute a living faith which saves the soul: it may be a 
mere historical credence, and it certainly is nothing more 
than this when it is unaccompanied by works that glo- 
rify God's name. A faith without works is dead, and 
cannot save. To such a faith St. Paul would be as far 
from ascribing justification as St. James. So far there 
is manifestly not the least discrepancy between them. 
But this would not appear to solve the whole diffi- 
culty ; for justification is not only denied of such a 
dead faith, but it is affirmed of works. Upon a super- 
ficial view this might be thought to indicate that the 
purpose of St. James is to deny of all faith, whether 
living or dead, that it justifies. A closer examination, 
however, will show that this is by no means the case. 
He does, indeed, claim that "by works a man is justi- 

5* 



i o 6 Justified tion. 

fied, and not by faith only." But all depends upon the 
application which is made of the word justify. The 
term designates an acl of man as well as an acl: of 
God The conditions must of course vary with the 
diversity in the application. In all cases the word means 
to pronounce just. But justification in the sight of man 
implies something which it does not involve when it 
designates our relation to God. The reason of this is 
that God sees the heart, whilst man does not. Faith 
alone justifies in the sight of God: no deeds of the 
law are necessary. This alone ought to suffice also in 
the sight of those who are the children of God, and 
who conform their judgment to that of their Father. 
But not all are children of God, who as such heartily 
adopt God's judgment. And those who are His chil- 
dren cannot look into the' soul, as God can, and there 
discern the existence of faith, independently of any man- 
ifestations. They must judge from appearances. Faith, 
if it be the living, active power which embraces the 
righteousness of Christ, works by love. The works 
which are thus brought forth are the marks by which 
men judge of its existence. Where they are found the 
person is pronounced just, because the evidences of 
justifying faith are. furnished. Without them no justi- 
fication can take place in the sight of man, because 
no knowledge can be had of the presence of the faith 
which justifies. 

To this St. James refers. His whole argumentation 
indicates that he has the external appearance in view. 
A dead faith, having no works, does not justify. But 
the living faith which does justify, is shown by works. 
Where these are, man fairly concludes that justification 
has ensued: the testimony is presented by which a 
iiving faith is known to exist. God needs no such tes- 
timony, but man manifestly does. In the sight of man 



The Means of its Reception. 107 

works are necessary to justify, because not the saying 
that we believe, but the actual believing with the heart 
justifies, and this actual believing is known to us only 
by the works which it produces. The readiness of Abra- 
ham to sacrifice his son proved the sincerity of his 
faith; it could not, after such evidence that it was a 
living power, be considered a mere external profession 
without vitality. In man's estimation he was justified 
by works; that is, his works were the means of man's 
knowing him to be justified, and thus the ground of 
pronouncing him just. The sign is put for the instru- 
mental cause, which is invisible to man. Thus, "was 
not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had 
offered Isaac his son upon the altar?" The profession 
of faith is necessary, otherwise a laudable act might, 
without violating the rule of charity, be ascribed to a 
natural motive; but the profession alone is insufficient, 
as that would be considered hypocritical if correspond- 
ing works were wanting. The evidence of justification 
is complete only where both are united. "Seest thou 
how faith wrought with his works, and by works was 
faith made perfect?" Faith must remain imperfect in 
man's sight until its evidence is furnished in works. 

That this is the meaning of St. James is rendered 
certain by the twenty-third verse: "And the Scripture 
was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it 
was imputed unto him for righteousness." The justi- 
fication before God was by faith alone, and this was 
openly shown before man by the works in which faith 
was manifested. The words which are represented by 
the papists as standing in conflict with the Scriptural 
doctrine of Justification by faith are, therefore, accord- 
ing to the context to be explained thus: "Ye see then 
how that by works a man is justified," in the sight of 
man, who cannot otherwise be assured of the existence 



108 J testification. 

of a living faith, "and not by faith only," which, as far 
as man can judge, is a mere dead thing when the evi- 
dence of vitality is not furnished by works. Before men, 
who cannot see into the heart, and who therefore regard 
a faith as merely pretended as long as it is not proved 
to be living, works are necessary to justification. Even 
St. Paul, who urges justification by faith alone with such 
frequency and such energy, expresses the same thought 
when he says: "If Abraham were justified by works 
he hath whereof to glory, but not before God." {Rom. 
iv. 2.) The doctrine of St. James is in no respect in 
conflict with the teaching of the other Scriptures that, 
in the sight of God, the sinner is justified by faith 
alone. 



Section 3. 

NO CONDITION TO BE FULFILLED BEFORE FAITH AVAILS. 

Because the way of salvation, when it is represented 
as consisting simply in the impartation of the merits of 
Christ and their appropriation by faith, seems so easy, 
many doubt and many positively reject it. It appears 
to them that too little is thus required of the sinner, 
and that the demand made upon him bears no ade- 
quate proportion to the iniquities laid to his charge. 
It seems like making restitution . in words for material 
treasures embezzled. For this reason it is supposed 
that, although faith be admitted to be the means of 
appropriating the gift, this can be so only under cer- 
tain conditions, the fulfillment of which implies a moral 
change in the subject, so that this change is just as 
essential to justification as the faith which is said to 
appropriate it. The presumption is that the believer is 



The Means of its Reception. 109 

justified, provided that the legal requirements made 
upon him are at least to some extent fulfilled. 

In reference to this whole scheme of thought, it is, 
first of all, to be observed, that the Scriptural doctrine 
of Justification does not rest upon any expiation or 
atonement to be made by the sinner The Bible does 
not teach that the culprit, as a condition of his acquit- 
tal, must himself furnish something in the nature of a 
ransom or restitution. This has been offered by our 
blessed Lord, who "came not to be ministered unto, 
but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for 
many." {Mat. xx. 28.) The failure to recognize this 
opens, the way for "damnable heresies." A theory of 
justification in which the redemption through Christ 
Jesus is ignored is not entitled to the predicate Chris- 
tian. It lacks all that is essential in the Christian system. 
And yet this radical mistake is made with startling fre- 
quency. If it did not lurk in the minds of those who, 
on the ground of the inadequacy of the sacrifice and 
satisfaction supposed to be involved in faith, object to 
the Biblical doctrine, such an objection could never be 
urged. When the sacrifice of Christ is once acknowl- 
edged, no other will be deemed necessary, and the 
thought will never be permitted to enter the mind that 
the sinner's justification is secured at too small a price. 
The cost was infinite; and it is a signal manifestation 
of human folly, and a gross insult to Him who paid 
the stupendous price for our ransom, to endeavor to 
gild its gold by overlaying it with the tinsel of our 
righteousness. 

Something more, indeed, is requisite to justification 
than a mere assent to Biblical statements; but faith 
alone appropriates the blessings which Christ has se- 
cured, and which are freely offered through the means 
of grace. No conditions are required in the subject, 



no Justification, 

the failure to fulfill which renders faith ineffectual. The 
sinner's condition may be as it will, if he has true faith 
which embraces Christ, he is justified, and it is well 
with him. 

To speak of a certain degree of sanctification as 
necessary to render faith acceptable to God, or of a 
certain number of self-denying performances as requi- 
site to induce God to look with complacency upon the 
believer in Jesus, is to set aside the atonement, and to 
wrest the Scriptures to our own destruction. God's 
declaration justifying the sinner is unconditional. The 
condition which was necessary before the declaration 
could be made, has been fulfilled in the Lamb of God, 
who taketh away the sins of the world. There is no 
other mentioned. Not even faith is a condition of the 
declaration. God offers the gift whether we believe or 
disbelieve. He sets it before us in His Word and Sa- 
craments, that we may believe it. Faith is the condition 
merely of our possessing the gift, and it is so because 
it is the only means of appropriating it. No holiness 
of heart and life can apprehend it. Indeed, it is gra- 
ciously bestowed as a free gift, because man has not 
the holiness which the law requires, and therefore needs 
it. If we had the holiness to render us acceptable to 
God, the free gift of another's holiness were needless: 
we would be justified by the deeds of the law, and 
could dispense with the righteousness of God by faith. 

All such notions about conditions to be fulfilled be- 
fore faith* avails, only darken counsel, disparage Christ, 
and destroy our peace. They all rest upon the perni- 
cious error, which has its birth in human pride, that 
man must be his own deliverer from death; and they 
all lead to the destruction of that peace which the soul 
can have in Jesus alone as the perfect Saviour. " Re- 
mission of sin is promised for Christ's sake. Therefore 



The Means of its Reception. 1 1 1 

no one can obtain it unless by faith alone. For no one 
can take hold of the promise or participate in it except 
through faith only. Romans iv. 16: 'Therefore it is of 
faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the pro- 
mise might be sure.* Precisely as if he should say, that 
if our salvation and righteousness depended upon our 
own merit, the promise of God would be uncertain and 
useless to us; for we never would know with certainty 
when our merits would suffice. The pious heart and 
Christian conscience know this full well, and would not 
for a thousand worlds that our salvation depended upon 
ourselves. Paul agrees with this view {Gal. iii. 22): 
'The Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the 
promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to 
them that believe/ Here Paul casts aside all our merit; 
for he says that we are worthy of death and concluded 
under sin; he calls to mind the divine promises, by 
which alone we can obtain the forgiveness of sin; and 
further adds how we become participants of the pro- 
mise — namely, by faith. This argument, drawn by Paul 
from the very nature of the divine promise — namely, 
that as God's promise is certain and must remain sure, 
as it will not fail to do, remission of sin cannot proceed 
from our merit, else it would be uncertain, and we could 
not know when our merits would suffice — yes, I say, 
this argument, this foundation, is a firm rock; it is per- 
haps the strongest in all the writings of St. Paul, and 
is often repeated and quoted in all the Epistles. No 
one on earth will ever be able to devise, invent, or 
contrive anything by which this argument alone, even 
if there were no other, could be overthrown. Nor will 
the pious and conscientious Christian by any means per- 
mit himself to be led away from the position, that we 
receive remission of sins by faith alone, for the sake of 
Christ's merits. For in this they have a sure, firm. 



ii2 y testification. 

eternal consolation against sin and the devil, death and 
hell; while everything else rests on a sandy foundation 
and is insufficient in the hour of temptation." {Apology 
iv. 84, 85.) The believer appropriates the righteousness 
of Christ set before him in the word of the Gospel; 
and as that is perfect and is offered freely and fully, 
no condition need be fulfilled on his part to make it 
available and to secure its comfort. Faith apprehends 
and possesses all. 



Section 4. 

THE NATURE OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 

There are three elements indicated in Scripture as 
constituting saving faith; namely, knowledge, assent, and 
confidence. The faith which justifies cannot exist in the 
absence of any one of them, as each of them is a ne- 
cessary constituent. 

1. — The object of faith must be known, before justi- 
fication can be appropriated. It is an error, devised to 
justify ignorance and to prevent souls from becoming 
uneasy under it, that an implicit faith, which is content 
with declaring its belief in what the Church believes, is 
sufficient. Whether the soul really embraces what is 
confessed by the Church, it cannot know without know- 
ing what it is that the Church confesses. All such 
pretences are mere manifestations of the heart's indif- 
ference. That a pious person is disposed to accept, with 
a presumption of its truth, everything that ecclesiastical 
authority imposes, may be true; but this disposition is 
clearly distinguishable from the actual reception of that 
which is so promulgated, and must not be confounded 
with it The mistake may be made that the Church 



The Means of its Reception, 1 1 3 

has power to control the conscience, and thus, by her 
supreme authority, bind upon it whatever she may see 
fit as articles of faith; but the actual submission has 
not, in any sjiven case, taken place before that which 
is alleged to be binding has been made known. It fre- 
quently happens that general propositions are accepted, 
but are again renounced as soon as that which is implied 
in them becomes apparent. The disposition to accept 
the deliverances of the Church might be overcome by 
a clear consciousness of their character. But even if 
this were in no case the result, the heart cannot fairly, 
under any circumstances, be said to have approved and 
placed its confidence in that which has never been 
known. Faith never extends beyond the object of its 
knowledge, though the heart may be in a condition 
which insures an increase of faith, commensurate with 
the increase of knowledge respecting its proper object 
There is an illusion by which many Protestants are 
misled, and which is similar in its nature to the implicit 
faith of the Romish Church. The mere belief of the 
truthfulness of the Bible is frequently represented as 
identical with the believing reception of the truth which 
the Bible contains. It is tacitly assumed that the one 
article of the credibility of the Holy Scriptures em- 
braces all other articles of the Christian faith, and that 
an explicit knowledge of its contents is therefore not 
essential to faith. We have thus, though in another 
form, the implicit faith, which exerts such a pernicious 
influence upon the adherents of Rome, transformed to 
Protestant ground. Certainly there is not the same 
slavishness, nor the same danger, when the Bible is 
substituted for the Church as the object of this faith 
which embraces truths only by implication. No one who 
is directed by the Holy Spirit could ever be led, by 
acquaintance with what is implied, to renounce the pro- 
5** H 



114 Justification. 

position that the Bible is true. But this does not render 
the principle harmless in this application. For a person 
may hold the Scriptures to be true, and still know so 
little of their contents that faith in Jesus, whom they 
alone set before us as the Saviour, is impossible, because 
of his ignorance; and he may, without renouncing his 
belief in the veracity of the Bible, deny fundamental 
truths contained in it, and thus declare his general faith 
nugatory. The true believer has implicit faith in all 
that the Bible teaches ; but faith simply in the truthful- 
ness of the Bible does not imply faith in all its truth. 
Actually each one believes only so much as he knows, 
though potentially every true believer embraces all. To 
increase knowledge of its object is to increase iaith 
in its extent. To have no knowledge is to have no 
faith, of which revelation is the correlative. Faith is 
not a phantom floating vaguely in the soul, but a power 
wrought by the Spirit, clinging to the truth of the 
Word given by inspiration, without which it cannot have 
being. 

The necessity of knowledge as an element of saving 
faith is frequently exhibited in Scripture. Our Lord 
declares: "This is life eternal, that they might know 
Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou 
hast sent." (John xvii. 3.) Those who speak disparag- 
ingly of knowledge and pronounce it useless, if not 
injurious in spiritual matters, are prone to point in 
triumph to the fad that mere intellectual apprehension 
cannot be meant in this passage. Certainly mere know- 
ing, in that sense, cannot be eternal life. But it is 
manifest that, although the word implies in this passage 
that which in the believer's heart is a necessary con- 
comitant of knowledge, it does not, on this account, 
lose its proper signification. It means knowledge, al- 
though, being used synecdochically, it means something 



The Means of its Reception, 115 

in addition to that which the term usually signifies. 
St Paul writes: "This I say therefore, and testify in 
the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles 
walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the under- 
standing darkened, being alienated from the life of God 
through the ignorance that is in them, because of the 
blindness of their heart" (Eph, W. 17, 18.) The natural 
darkness of the understanding, the ignorance of saving 
truth, is here plainly represented as an impediment in 
the way of salvation, while the innate blindness of the 
heart is declared to close it against the entrance of the 
word which giveth light and knowledge. 

It is unnecessary to multiply proofs in a matter so 
plain, If knowledge were not necessary, all instruction 
in the truth would be merely waste of time and talents. 
As it is, "how shall they call on Him in whom they 
have not believed? and how shall they believe in Him 
• of whom they have not heard?" (Rom, x. 14.) As we 
cannot believe what we do not know, God mercifully 
gives "knowledge of salvation unto His people by the 
remission of their sins." (Luke i. 77.) 

The proper object of faith is the whole truth of 
God as given by revelation in the Holy Scriptures. 
The whole truth is therefore also the proper object of 
knowledge as an element of that faith. The Christian 
strives to "grow in grace and in the knowledge of our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ," that his faith may in- 
crease. He therefore willingly hears the Word of God 
and learns it, searching the Scriptures daily. But man- 
ifestly the whole contents of the Bible can be fully 
known by comparatively but few, while a large pro- 
portion of Christians remain in ignorance of many truths 
which are profitable for instruction. The knowledge of 
all is not essential to faith. The Scriptures therefore 
represent those truths which are indispensable to faith, 



1 1 6 Justification, 

as pre-eminently the object of knowledge. Thus St 
Paul ardently desires that the disciples' "hearts might 
be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all 
riches of the full assurance of understanding; to the 
acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the 
Father, and of Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures 
of wisdom and knowledge." ( Col. ii. 2. 3.) And, again, 
he prays God to grant to His people "to know the 
love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that they 
might be filled with all the lullness of God." (Ep/i. iii. 
19.) Standing out prominently among the blessed truths 
revealed to man are those concerning the grace of God 
in our adorable Saviour the redemption through His 
blood, and the promise of everlasting life in His dear 
name. While faith may exist without the knowledge 
of some portions of the Bible-truth, it cannot exist 
without the knowledge of such cardinal portions as 
these. We must know the truth forming the founda- 
tion of our salvation in order to have faith, and we 
exercise faith only so far as our knowledge extends. 

But necessary as knowledge is, it is not the only 
element of faith, nor is it the chief. The error of 
identifying this one element with that of which it is a 
constituent part is ruinous to souls. Not all the learn- 
ing of earth can secure a sinner's pardon, even though 
that learning embraced the whole Bible within its scope. 
Knowledge alone avails nothing on the judgment-day. 
Of it, considered as separated from the other elements 
of faith, the apostle asserts that it "puffeth up." (jCor. 
viii. 1.) It profits no more for salvation than any other 
possession acquirable by natural means. The knowledge 
to which the Scriptures ascribe eternal life, it must be 
observed, is not that which may abide in the soul in 
harmony with the rejection of the truth known. When 
it is said that to know Christ is life eternal, the term 



The Means of its Reception. 117 

knowledge is used synecdochically, one of the consti- 
tuents of faith being placed for the whole. This is 
plain from the facl: that mere knowledge, exclusively of 
assent and confidence, merely "puffeth up," and has no 
saving power. The faith that saves implies something 
more. 

2. — It involves assent to that which is known. There 
are many who obtain a knowledge of divine truths with- 
out becoming believers. Some neglect them with in- 
difference, some reject them with scorn. Faith implies 
that what is known is also approved. 

In these last times especially, when the gates of 
hell are gathering all their strength to prevail against 
the Church, and philosophy and science are making 
their boldest and most desperate assaults upon the Book 
of God, all who would be saved from the wrath to 
come should be mindful of the facl, that the abandon- 
ment of truth which the Holy Spirit has revealed is 
the abandonment of faith. When the soul no longer 
clings to the Word of the Lord as absolute authority, 
and ceases to hold its testimony as a sufficient ground 
of assurance over against the adverse pretensions of 
human wisdom and human fancy, it is a mere delusion 
to suppose that it still retains the faith that saves. 
When God speaks, His servants hear. Not on con- 
dition that what He says is in coincidence with our 
reason or our taste, or seems to us adapted to the 
great end of man's salvation, is His Word received by 
the believer with reverence and held fast as a treasure. 
Faith regards it as supreme authority. "For this cause 
also thank we God without ceasing," says St. Paul, 
"because when ye received the word of God which ye 
heard of me, ye received it not as the word of man, 
but, as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually 
worketh also in you that believe." (1 Thes. ii. 14.) 



n8 Justification. 

There can be no true faith where the supremacy of 
God's Word is not recognized, and where assent is not 
given to every declaration as of divine authority, to 
which the whole soul must be in subjection. The be- 
liever stands in awe of the great King's words, "bringing 
into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." 
{2 Cor. x. 5.) Where one word of the Lord, being 
known as such, is rejected, faith cannot exist; because 
the authority on which all rests is repudiated. If the 
testimony of God is not regarded as sufficient ground 
for receiving that which it supports, His Word is not 
believed even when our convictions coincide with its 
statements, as these convictions must, in that case, be 
based upon some other evidence. But faith is the 
assurance of things not -seen, on the ground of the 
witness of the Spirit given in the Scriptures. Without 
assenting to the truth of this Word no saving faith 
could exist in the soul, as the very foundation of its 
confidence would be wanting ; but where this foundation 
is recognized, ther? is not mere uncertain and vacillating 
opinion regarding its contents, but assent to eternal 
truth. 

Nor is this approval confined to the general state- 
ments of Scripture: it embraces the particular declara- 
tions and the special application of those which are 
general. "Thou believest that there is one God; thou 
doest well: the devils also believe and tremble." {James 
ii. 19.) Assenting to Biblical statements in a general 
way, while the heart is too little concerned about their 
import to effect a distinct recognition of what they 
imply, just as we give a general assent to historical 
statements about which we are indifferent and which 
have been but superficially viewed, is by no means all 
that is requisite. An assent by implication is futile; and 
no reasonable person would claim that the whole could 



The Means of its Reception. 1 1 9 

be approved when there is not even the profession of 
assent to the parts composing it. To approve the pro- 
position that God is just and merciful, and that He 
has sent His Son to satisfy the demands of justice and 
give mercy free scope in the salvation of the sinner, 
and yet to withhold assent to the implied proposition 
that He is just and merciful towards me> and has sent 
His Son that / might not perish, but have everlasting 
life, is contradictory and nugatory. The assent must 
be special. Thus we have it in the words of St. Paul: 
"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all accepta- 
tion, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save 
sinners; of whom I am chief." (7 Tim. i. 15.) The ob- 
ject of faith is presented upon the authority of God; 
and faith cannot, in the nature of the case, have any 
existence where this object is not sanctioned by the 
judgment, on the ground of that divine authority. And 
yet this approval of the truth known does not, without 
still another element, constitute saving faith. 

3. — The other element necessary is confidence, which 
is, indeed, the most important of all. Faith is not 
merely the intellectual activity of knowing and approv- 
ing, but includes also the exercise of the will and heart 
in reference to that which is known and approved. 
"Our opponents," says the Apology of the Augsbzirg 
Confession, "suppose this to be faith, that I know or 
have heard the history of Christ, and therefore teach 
that I can believe even though I live in mortal sin. 
Hence they know and say nothing of the true Chris- 
tian faith, of which Paul everywhere speaks, that we 
become righteous before God through faith. For those 
whom God accounts holy and righteous do not live in 
mortal sins. The faith which renders us just before 
God does not consist simply in the knowledge of the 
history concerning Christ's birth, sufferings, &c., which 



120 Justification. 

the devils also know; but in the certainty, or the cer- 
tain strong confidence in the heart, by which, with all 
my heart, I hold as certain and true the assurance of 
God, which offers to me, without my merit, forgiveness 
of sin, grace, and full salvation through the Mediator 
Christ. And that no one may presume that it is merely 
a knowledge of the historical narratives, I add this, that 
faith consists in embracing this treasure with all my 
heart; that it is not my own deed, not a gift of my 
own bestowing, not a work of my own accomplishing, 
but a complete trust of the heart, with strong consola- 
tion, in the truth that God bestows gifts upon us, not 
we upon Him, and that He showers upon us the whole 
treasure of grace in Christ." (II., 48.) The true believer 
not only knows the truth in Jesus and assents to it in- 
tellectually, but also earnestly desires and seeks the 
mercy of God in Christ, and embraces the offer of 
pardon, freely made, as his daily consolation and joy, 
confiding in the word and promise of God, as directed 
to him personally and assuring him of eternal life 
through the Redeemer's blood. 

That such confidence is an essential element of jus- 
tifying faith, according to the Scriptures, must be clear 
to all candid minds from the following testimony: 

First, faith is the reception of the Saviour, the appre- 
hension of Him with His infinite merits. This reception 
cannot take place by a mere intellectual assent, without 
an activity of the will, no more than an earthly object 
can be embraced by the mere knowledge of its exist- 
ence without a volition. "As many as received Him, 
to them gave He power to become the sons of God, 
even to them that believe on His name." {John i. 12.) 
Here receiving Jesus is explained as identical with be- 
lieving in Him. In John xvii. 8, the reception of the 
Saviour's words is, in the same way, represented as 



The Means of its Reception. 121 

identical with believing in Him. In John xvii. 8, the 
reception of the Saviour's words is, in the same way, 
represented as identical with believing them: "I have 
given unto them the words which Thou gavest Me; 
and they have received them, and have known surely 
that I came out from Thee, and they have believed 
that Thou didst send Me." Of the same import are 
the words of the apostle: "That the blessing of Abra- 
ham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, 
that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through 
faith" {Gal. iii. 14); and many of. a similar character. 
All of these imply that faith is something more than a 
mere activity of the intellect, since receiving an object 
is manifestly a distinct operation, which cannot be con- 
sidered identical with knowing it, or assenting to a 
proposition respecting it; and the reception and reten- 
tion by the soul of the object of faith is just what 
confidence implies, as spiritual grasping and holding 
fest. 

This is, secondly, expressed still more emphatically 
in the passages which ascribe to faith the appropriation 
of the benefits inhering in the object received. "I am 
crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but 
Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in 
the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who 
loved me and gave Himself for me." {lb. ii. 20.) "For 
ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." 
{lb. iii. 26.) Believing in Christ is holding Him fast in 
the soul, so as to enjoy all that He is and all that He 
has. 

And this confidence, finally, is expressly declared to 
be an element of faith when it is said: "Let us draw 
near with a true heart in full assurance of faith" {Heb. 
x. 22); and, "Abraham staggered not at the promise of 
God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving 
6 



122 y%tstification, 

glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what He 
had promised He was able also to perform." {Rom. jv. 
20, 21.) The full assurance and firm persuasion signify 
just what the word confidence is designed to express. 
If there should be any remaining doubt it must cer- 
tainly be dispelled by passages such as these: "Such 
trust have we through Christ to Godward" (2 Cor. iii. 4) ; 
"in whom we have boldness and access with confidence 
by the faith of Him" (Bph. iii. 12); "and this is the 
confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any- 
thing according to His will, He heareth us." {1 John v. 

Saving faith is therefore not what many, who con- 
found the Scriptural sense of the word with its ordinary 
acceptation in popular usage with reference to temporal 
things, conceive it to be. When it is understood as 
signifying merely an intellectual operation, which is per- 
formed by natural power, as simply a human conviction 
resting upon satisfactory evidence, which one who at 
heart rejects Christ may possess as well as one who 
most cordially embraces Him, it is no wonder that its 
justifying power is denied, and that the doctrine of 
justification by faith seems dangerous. "Faith is the 
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things 
not seen." {Heb. xi. 1.) "Whosoever believeth that Jesus 
is the Christ is born of God"; and "whatsoever is born 
of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory 
that overcometh the world, even our faith." (7 John v. 
I, 4.) It embraces the Saviour and appropriates His 
merits, at the same time that it knows the truth and 
assents to it. It cannot exist without knowledge of its 
object, nor without the intellect's approval of the truth; 
but its chief characteristic is the strong confidence which 
will not let the Saviour go, and which clings to Him, 
as presented to the soul by the Word of truth, in spite 



The Means of its Reception. 123 

of the opposition of the devil and of the world and of 
the flesh. "For only faith in the heart keeps the pro- 
mises of God in view, and faith alone is the assurance 
which renders the heart certain that God is gracious 
and that Christ has not died in vain. And this faith 
alone overcomes the terrors of death and of sin ; for he 
that wavers, or doubts whether his sins are forgiven, 
has no confidence in God and despairs of Christ, deem- 
ing his sins greater and mightier than the death and 
blood of Christ." (Apology, iii. 27, 28.) 



Section 5. 

HOW FAITH JUSTIFIES. 

The doctrine of Justification by faith, clear and con- 
sistent as it is in itself, is often rendered an enigma by 
the misrepresentations of its opponents. Some miscon- 
ceive, and some perhaps willfully pervert, the truth in 
regard to the manner in which faith is said to justify 
the sinner; and upon the basis of such misconception 
the doctrine seems singularly illogical and unsatisfactory. 
We shall endeavor, in this section, to obviate the diffi- 
culties which may appear to surround the truth on 
account of misapprehensions respecting the functions of 
faith in the work of justification. 

It is not strange that when the Scriptural doctrine 
is understood as resting on the assumption of the meri- 
toriousness of faith as a human activity, the difference 
between it and the doctrine which ascribes justification 
to good works is not easily discerned. But the Scrip- 
tural doctrine involves no such assumption. Faith does 
not justify as being a good work. It is not meritorious, 
and. if it were, its merit could not satisfy the require- 



124 Justification, 

ments of justice. It is not meritorious, because it is 
the gift of God's grace, upon which it would be absurd 
to base a claim against the bountiful Giver. It could 
not justify as a meritorious work, even if it were ad- 
mitted to be such, because all human work is imper- 
fect, and even perfection in holiness could not atone 
for past sins. When faith is spoken of as justifying, it 
is not viewed at all as a work performed, but rather as 
a means used. Therefore the Lutheran Church says 
in her Confession that "faith does not render us just 
and righteous before God because it is our work, but 
only because it accepts the grace promised and prof- 
fered as a free gift without merit." The opinion that 
faith is a meritorious act of man, and that God, in 
consideration of such merit, justifies the sinner, is in 
conflict with the truth that man is justified by grace 
through Christ Jesus; and its adoption into the Lu- 
theran system would render this a confused mass of 
contradictions. But this opinion is Romish, not -Evan- 
gelical, and will not harmonize with the doctrine of 
Scripture, which can recognize no merit before God in 
any human performance. The sinner is justified by 
faith, not on account of it. 

Neither is it the teaching of Scripture and of the 
Church that faith justifies so far forth as it implies a 
change of heart, and is thus sanctification in its germ. 
Justification by faith is not justification by the holiness 
of which it is the root, and which it might be conceived 
as potentially possessing. 

It is undoubtedly true that the existence of faith 
implies the co-existence in the heart of incipient sancti- 
fication. It is inconceivable that there could be a living 
trust in Jesus while the soul which trusts disregards 
His holy will and resists His Spirit of holiness. "Who- 
soever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of 



The Means of its Reception. 125 

God." (7 John v. 1.) We "cannot by our own reason 
or other natural powers believe in or come to Jesus 
Christ." Faith is not a product of human exertion; 
it cannot originate in man's own will. "For by grace 
are ye saved through faith ; and that not of yourselves : 
it is the gift of God." {Eph. ii. 8.) " No man can come 
unto Me, except it were given unto him of My Father." 
{John vi. 65.) Faith can exist only as the result of the 
Holy Spirit's operation in the heart through His ap- 
pointed means. But the Holy Spirit, whose will is our 
sanctification, as well as our justification, does not con- 
fine His work within us to the production of faith. 
"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffer- 
ing, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: 
against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's 
have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." 
(GaLv. 22-24.) The work of sanctification is begun just 
as soon as the Holy Spirit enters the heart, and it exists 
therefore in its incipiency as soon as living faith is 
wrought. The knowledge of sin, and sense of misery, 
and desire for relief must precede the appropriation 
of comfort; and the heart which does not obstinately 
resist the grace enabling it to embrace the comfort, 
possesses the grace enabling it to hate the sin which 
entailed the misery. All things become new when we 
believe in Christ. "The faith by which each one be- 
lieves that Christ is given for him personally, alone 
receives forgiveness of sin for Christ's sake, and renders 
us just and righteous before God. And because this 
exists where there is true penitence, and supports us in 
the terrors of sin and death, we are born anew by it. 
By faith the Holy Spirit enters our hearts and renews 
us, so that we are able to keep the divine law, truly 
to love and fear God, firmly to trust that Christ is 
given to us, and cheerfully to resign ourselves to the 



126 y testification. 

will of God, even in the midst Q,f death." {Apology, ii. 
45-) 

A faith that is not thus connected with holiness is 
the dead faith of which St. James speaks, and which is 
just as little justifying as.it is sanctifying. To ascribe 
justification to such a lifeless thing betrays an utter 
want of understanding in spiritual matters, and to im- 
pute such blindness and stupidity to the great Reformer 
and his brethren in the faith of Jesus is foully slander- 
ous. "It is indisputable that on our part the correct 
doctrine is taught concerning good works. And we add 
that it. is impossible that true faith, which comforts the 
heart and embraces forgiveness of sins, should exist 
without the love of God." (/&., 20.) 

But while the truth is. undeniable that a living faith 
is never sundered from the sanctifying influences of the 
Spirit who dwells in the hearts of believers, it is equally 
certain that the holy affections which accompany it are 
neither the ground nor the means of justification. A 
grosser misunderstanding of the precious doctrine which 
we teach can scarcely be conceived than that which, 
when faith is mentioned, assumes that works are meant. 
It overthrows the very foundation of our salvation, which 
is Christ, to substitute the latter for the former. For 
if our holy emotions or performances effect pur accept- 
ance with God, then has Christ become to us of none 
effect. What need have we for a Saviour if we can 
save ourselves? Why speak any longer of the merits 
of Christ as the ground of our hope, if that ground is 
the sanctification which we ourselves possess? 

Nor does it materially change the question to remind 
us that the necessity of faith is not denied, but that it 
is only viewed in connection with its fruits, by those 
who would have the holiness resulting from it consi- 
dered the justifying element For in this way faith 



The Means of its Reception. 127 

would become the means of laying the foundation of 
righteousness in ourselves, instead of being the means 
of bringing us into a living relation with the founda- 
tion which is laid. Christ is thus set aside to make 
room for a sinner whose saintliness is supposed to need 
no justification. If, in such a doctrine, Christ is recog- 
nized at all, it can be only as a medium through whom 
we are brought to heaven without needing an atone- 
ment, since we can render satisfaction ourselves. This 
is a fatal perversion of the truth. Faith justifies in no 
such sense. As it is not itself a holy sentiment on 
account of which all our unholiness is winked at and 
we are pronounced just, so it is not a source of holy 
affections which God declares sufficient to establish our 
claim to eternal bliss. Faith does produce holy fruits 
which are pleasing in God's sight. But never can these 
fruits atone for the sin which is upon us, or avert the 
wrath of God under which it has brought us. With- 
out Christ we are inevitably lost. "Other foundation 
can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." 
Faith can in itself no more be the foundation than 
charity. A believer can no more be saved by holiness 
than an unbeliever, just as a genuine dime will no more 
buy a palace than a spurious one. Faith is the means 
to embrace Christ, that we may be saved through Him ; 
not a means of enabling us to dispense with Him, and 
still to be saved. The theory that it saves the sinner 
so far forth as it sanctifies, or because it sanctifies, is a 
Romish figment, which only those Protestant sects have 
adopted who have fallen away from the sound and so- 
lacing doctrines of the Bible as revived in the glorious 
Reformation. The faith which saves is, beyond all con- 
troversy, the faith which works by love, as it is a living 
faith; but it saves only because it appropriates the Sa- 
f viour, in no sense because it works by love. 



128 Justification. 

Saving faith has a two-fold energy. It is both re- 
ceptive and operative. It has two hands, one of which 
is extended towards the Lamb of God who became a 
sacrifice for us, while the other ministers to the wants 
of the brethren. It appropriates the redemption, and, 
in the strength of the grace which it appropriates, it 
dispenses blessings in good works. It clings to Jesus 
for the saving of the soul, and works by love for the 
welfare of our race, that God may be glorified in all. 
The precious doctrine of Justification by faith cannot 
be held in its purity or experienced in its preciousness 
where this two-fold energy is not recognized, and where 
the effect of each is not viewed without confounding it 
with that of the other. 

Faith receives the Saviour with all His fullness of 
grace. "As many as received Him, to them gave He 
power to become the sons of God, even to them that 
believe on His name." {John i. 12.) It is not by holy 
affections which beseem the children of God that we 
are made such children: we become such by the re- 
ception in faith of the only -begotten Son, in whom the 
Father is well-pleased. Receiving Him is identical with 
believing in Him. Therefore the apostle, after telling 
the Colossians that he joyed in their steadfastness of 
faith in Christ, tells them: "As ye have therefore re- 
ceived Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him, rooted 
and built up in Him, and established in the faith." 
{Col. ii. 6, 7.) By faith they had received Christ, and 
it behooved them to order their conversation accord- 
ingly, that they might walk worthy of Him. And those 
who thus embrace Him become recipients of His merits 
unto salvation. "To Him give all the prophets witness, 
that through His name whosoever believeth in Him 
shall receive remission of sin." (Atls x. 43.) The faith 
which receives Him receives all thai He has secured ♦ 



The Means of its Reception-. 1 29 

for us, having righteousness not in that which it is, 
but in that which it holds. "That no man is justified 
by the law in the sight of God, it is evident; for, The 
just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith; 
but, The man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ 
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being 
made a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every 
one that hangeth on a tree; that the blessings of Abra- 
ham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, 
that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through 
faith." {Gal. iii. 11-14.) It is because of this receptive 
energy of faith that St. Paul declares: "To him that 
worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the 
ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." {Rom. 
iv. 5.) Faith avails unto justification, not because of 
any intrinsic virtue which it has in itself, but because 
of the merit which it holds by embracing Christ. It 
receives the Saviour, and therefore has Him and all 
that He has. 

From this receptive power of faith its operative 
power, as directed towards man, is clearly distinguish- 
able. The reception of Christ is the condition of all 
holiness and good works. It gives the necessary strength 
and furnishes the requisite motives; "for we are His 
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, 
which God hath before ordained that we should walk 
in them." (Eph. ii. 10.) But never is the love which it 
produces, and through which it works, laid down in 
the Scriptures as the justifying power or the justifying 
medium. Faith justifies not because it is operative in 
scattering blessings through love upon our fellow-men, 
but only and solely because it receives Christ with all 
His grace and merits unto salvation. 
6* I 



1 30 • Justification* 



Section 6. 

DEGREES IN FAITH, BUT NOT IN JUSTIFICATION. 

The faith which justifies admits of degrees. In some 
it is comprehensive, in others it is narrow; in some it 
is strong, in others it is weak. It grows, and conditions 
the Christian's growth. Step by step we approach the 
stature of the perfect man. All have reason to pray 
with the apostles: "Lord, increase our faith." (Luke 
xvii. 5.) But as this increase is slower in some, more 
rapid in others, its degrees are manifold. 

Of faith in its strength we have an illustrious ex- 
ample in Abraham, "who against hope believed in hope, 
that he might become the father of many nations, ac- 
cording to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed 
be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not 
his own body now dead, when he was about a hundred 
years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb; 
he staggered not at the promise of God through unbe- 
lief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God." 
(Rom. iv. i£-20.) Of faith in its weakness an illustration 
is presented in the man who entreated the Lord to 
deliver his son from the "dumb spirit" by which he 
was tormented. He said to Jesus: "If thou canst do 
anything, have compassion on us and help us. Jesus 
said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are pos- 
sible to him that believeth. And straightway the father 
of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I 
believe : help Thou mine unbelief." (Mark ix. 22-24.) 
The former had strong confidence that permitted no 
doubt to vex his soul; the latter trusted so feebly that 
a rigorous judge might construe his faith into unbelief. 
Both were believers, but they had faith in strikingly 
different degrees. 



The Means of its Reception; 131 

The distinction between a strong and a weak faith 
is frequently suggested in the Scriptures, and duties are 
enjoined upon Christians which rest upon the fact of 
such distinction. Thus the apostle exhorts: "Him that 
is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful dis- 
putations." {Rom. xiv. 1.) And having explained and 
enforced the duty, he sums up by saying: "We then 
that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the 
weak, and not to please ourselves." {Rom. xv. 1.) The 
assumption that all believers possess faith in the same 
stage of development is utterly inconsistent with such 
declarations. 

The fact that faith is capable of growth implies that 
it does not always exist in the same degree. * It is the 
will of God that we should increase "till we all come, 
in the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son 
of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the 
stature of the fullness of Christ : that we henceforth be 
no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about 
with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men 
and cunning craftiness, whereby they lay in wait to 
deceive." (Eph. iv. 13, 14.) That Christians will make 
progress is accordingly presupposed by the apostle when 
he writes: "We are come as far as to you also in 
preaching the Gospel of Christ: not boasting of things 
without our measure, that is, of other men's labors ; but 
having hope, when your faith is increased, that we shall 
be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly." 
(2 Cor. x. 14, 15.) 

The increase of faith is dependent upon the increase 
of the elements which constitute it. Faith grows on 
the condition that the field of our knowledge of its 
proper object is enlarged, that our assent attains a cor- 
respondingly wider range, and that our confidence in 
that which is known and approved as divine is strength- 



132 "Justified Hon . 

ened. Not every believer has precisely the same degree 
of knowledge and of confidence. 

We cannot exercise intelligent faith in more than 
we know, and therefore increase in knowledge is urged 
upon us as a pre-requisite to the increase of faith. 
Thus St. Paul says: "For this cause we also, since the 
day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to 
desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of 
His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that 
ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, 
being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in 
the knowledge of God." (G?/. i. 9, 10.) Thus also St. 
Peter exhorts: "Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know 
these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away 
with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stead- 
fastness. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of 
your Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." {2 Peter iii. 17, 
18.) It is so manifest as scarcely to need mentioning, 
that the enlargement of the sphere of our knowledge 
does not involve of necessity the increase of faith, since 
we may withhold our assent and confidence from that 
which has been learned and which should be believed. 
But while we may know the truth without embracing it 
by faith, we cannot thus embrace it without knowing it. 
Knowledge avails nothing without faith ; but, having 
faith, the increase of knowledge in revealed truth consti- 
tutes an increase of faith in its volume, and contributes 
to its increase in power. The degree of our faith must 
manifestly, in its extent, be commensurate with the de- 
gree of our knowledge of that to which faith clings and 
without which it can have no existence, although the 
degree of our confidence is not always as the degree 
of our knowledge. 

As mere knowledge, indispensable as it is to faith, 
does not alone constitute it, and as an individual may 



The Means of its Reception. 1 33 

be well informed in the domain of divine truth without 
actually appropriating it, the increase of faith depends 
upon something more than the enlargement of our 
knovvledge. In one respect it might, indeed, be said 
that assent is incapable of degrees. As this is an in- 
tellectual act, into which the will does not enter, as one 
of the factors, it might be claimed that it absolutely 
takes place, or it does not take place at all, and that 
when assent is wanting there is absolutely no faith. 
In regard to assent in general it is to be observed, 
however, that it will be proportioned to the strength 
of the evidence, and that we assent upon probabilities 
as well as upon certainties, only in different ways; that 
is, assent has different degrees. And in regard to the 
special assent which is an element of saving faith, it 
must not be overlooked that that which seems to pre- 
clude all degrees does not lie in its nature, but in the 
nature of the object. Assent may be but partial when 
the object is but partially admissible, or it may be 
more or less strong, according as that object seems 
more or less probable. But divine truth is certain, and 
cannot be more so or less so; and if, in this domain, 
the assent is but partial, because the Word of God is 
deemed only partly true, or but feeble, because that 
Word seems only probable, the special assent implied 
in faith is not given at all, because the object is not 
received at all as infallible truth. It is then approved 
only on human grounds, and this implies the rejection 
of the whole ground upon which it rests. This is ab- 
solutely inconsistent with faith, according to St. Paul's 
words: "For this cause also thank we God without 
ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God 
which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word 
of men, but, as it is in trulh, the word of God, which 
effectually worketh in you also that believe." (/ Thes. 



134 yustification. 

ii. 13.) In this regard the question respecting which 
there are degrees in the assent would be, whether that 
which is claimed to be so is the word of the Lord. 
But there is a respect, in which assent increases con- 
stantly. It keeps pace with knowledge in all the growth 
of the latter: its domain becomes ever wider. To know 
a truth of revelation and not to assent to it, is unbe- 
lief Knowledge and assent go hand in hand in the 
believer, and faith increases as its possessions become 
larger through the enlargement of its territory. 

But growth in faith also implies growth in the vigor 
with which its proper object is held fast. It must in- 
crease as well intensively as extensively. Not only must 
knowledge increase and assent be given to all that is 
known as God's word, but this must be adhered to 
with ever-increasing tenacity. Confidence, which is the 
chief element in faith, and constitutes its distinctive char- 
acter as saving faith, must become constantly stronger. 
It endures trials, and becomes ever more vigorous by 
the endurance. The Christian is "kept by the power 
of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be re- 
vealed in the last time; wherein ye greatly rejoice, 
though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heavi- 
ness through manifold temptations; that the trial of 
your faith, being much more precious than of gold that 
perisheth, though it be tried by fire, might be found 
unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of 
Jesus Christ." (z Peter i. 5-7.) The difference between 
a faith that clings, in weal and wo, through storm and 
sunshine, to the promises of God, and a faith that 
trembles at every danger and shrinks from every con- 
flict, though it still in feebleness clasps the Saviour, is 
manifest; and examples of both are mentioned in Scrip- 
ture and met with frequency in our intercourse with 
men. Those who have not observed a difference of 



The Means of its Reception. 135 

degree in the power of faith as exhibited in different 
persons, must have walked among Christians with their 
eyes closed. 

With the fact clearly before us that there are differ- 
ent degrees of faith, it is of the utmost importance for 
our own peace of conscience, and for the exercise of 
justice and charity to others, that we be fully assured 
of the justifying power of faith, even where it lacks 
that high degree of advancement which characterizes 
it in the Christian hero. Faith that embraces Christ as 
the Saviour justifies in any of its degrees; and the jus- 
tification which it secures is not graduated according to 
the degree of the faith which secures it. 

That which is requisite to justification is faith, not a 
certain definite degree of faith. It is unquestionable 
that this is the means by which the merits of Christ 
are embraced and appropriated. But frequently as the 
necessity of faith is declared and its justifying power is 
proclaimed, there is not a single passage which requires 
a certain stage in its development to be attained as a 
condition of its efficacy. It must embrace the Saviour 
as offered in the Word of truth; for there is no other 
name than that of Jesus by which the soul can be 
saved. It must, in other words, have Him for its ob- 
ject, in whom alone there is justification. But whether 
it clings to Him firmly or feebly, so long as it con- 
tinues to cling to Him, is not essential in the sphere 
of justification, however important it , is in the domain 
of sanctification. "He that believeth shall be saved," 
whether his faith be strong or weak. The attainment 
of strength must be the Christian's persistent aim; for 
the weak are always in more danger of falling away 
than the strong, and thus of failing at last to reach the 
end of their faith, which is the salvation of the soul; 
and the strong can accomplish more for the glory of 



136 Justification. 

God, which is the end of our being, and have a pros- 
peel of higher prizes in the distribution of gracious 
rewards to the saved in the kingdom of glory. "The 
just shall live by faith"; but "he that endureth to the 
end shall be saved" (Mat. x. 22); and "they that be 
wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and 
they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for 
ever and ever." {Dan. xii. 3, comp. 1 Cor. xv. 41, 42.) 
It is therefore by no means indifferent whether we grow 
and abound more and more or not. But it is just as 
little a matter of indifference whether we represent our 
salvation as dependent upon the degree of our growth 
or not. It is a fearful thing to discourage tremulous 
souls, who pursue the path of faith amid untold diffi- 
culties already, by telling them that their weakness 
insures their damnation. Despair may be the result of 
such harshness, which conflicts at once with truth and 
mercy ; and the soul that is too severely judged, and 
the soul which judges too severely, are both endan- 
gered. "Him that is weak in the faith receive ye," 
{Rom. xiv. 1,) as it is said of our Lord: "A bruised 
reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall 
He not quench." (Is. lxii. 3.) 

Indeed, the figment that a certain degree of faith, 
not faith itself, secures justification, is in conflict with 
the great central truth of Christianity, and saps its 
very foundation. For if the faith which appropriates 
Christ does not save because it is weak, then the sal- 
vation is not found in Christ, but in the faith. Man in 
this way would become his own saviour. The redemp- 
tion in Christ would no longer be its ground. Faith 
would justify, not because it appropriates the justifying 
merits of Jesus, but because it has an intrinsic jus- 
tifying virtue. We meet thus the old papistic foe with 
a new face. It is salvation by creature merit, justi- 



The Means of its Reception. 137 

fication through sanctification. It declares that Christ, 
whom faith embraces, avails nothing; that which alone 
is of avail is the moral strength which the soul pos- 
sesses. It transforms the precious doctrine of justifica- 
tion through the merits of Christ, apprehended by faith, 
into the disconsolate fiction of justification through the 
merits of faith. The latter is viewed as a meritorious 
work under the law, and the words of the apostle are 
as well applicable to this as to any other work : " Christ 
is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are 
justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace." (GaL 
v. 4.) 

It would avail nothing to reply that no merit is 
ascribed to faith by those who advocate the theory of 
justification only by a certain degree of faith, inasmuch 
as they mean nothing more than this, that only when 
such degree is attained has it power to appropriate the 
salvation in Christ. This is simply shirking the ques- 
tion. Faith which does not apprehend Christ in His 
Word certainly does not save: it is not saving faith. 
About this there can be no controversy. But saving 
faith may be strong or weak; the faith which does em- 
brace Christ admits of different degrees ; and those who 
maintain that a weak faith, though it be right in kind, 
does not justify because it is insufficient in degree, un- 
doubtedly teach that faith may be sufficient to embrace 
Christ without being sufficient to justify; and this just 
as undeniably involves the' error that not the merits of 
Christ, but the merits of faith, are the ground of justi- 
fication. Let not souls be deprived of the rich com- 
fort which lies in the truth that, while they cling to the 
Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world, 
they are not under condemnation, but are justified, not- 
withstanding all their weaknesses. Imperfection attaches 
to everything human, and faith is not exempt from it; 
6** 



138 J us tip c a tion . 

for although it is the work and gift of God, it is exer- 
cised by man and partakes of human infirmity. To 
pronounce salvation impossible while this infirmity at- 
taches to our faith, is to deprive us of all hope; and 
to declare a certain degree of strength indispensable in 
the faith which embraces Christ, to render it justifying, 
is to dishearten the weak tremblers, who, of all others, 
need encouragement most. . 

Just as decidedly must we reject the error of those 
who maintain that there are degrees of justification cor- 
responding to the degrees of faith. 

The believer grows in the fullness of his knowledge 
and in the firmness of his grasp of the truth; he grows 
in the joyous consciousness of his rich possessions in 
Christ: but justification, being an act of God, is perfect 
and complete at once, and it is the sinner's personal 
possession as soon as he has the faitlj which appro- 
priates it. It is incapable of division into parts or 
degrees in iiself, and it is embraced in its entirety, not 
partially and gradually, if embraced at all. The theory 
of the Romish Church, which, in its essential features, 
has lately been adopted and advocated with great zeal 
by a prominent Protestant theologian in Germany, and 
which he has labored hard to bring into coincidence 
with the pure Lutheran faith, finds not the least coun- 
tenance in the Bible. It can be entertained only by 
those who confound the distinct offices of the Law and 
the Gospel, and who, in consequence of such confusion, 
are incapable of distinguishing between justification and 
sanclification. 

If we do not wrest the Scriptures, but accept their 
statements in their plain import, we cannot for a moment 
remain in doubt whether justification is at once perfect. 
1 The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from 
all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive our- 



The Means of its Reception. 1 39 

selves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our 
sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and 
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." {1 John i. 7-9.) 
In this passage the Holy Spirit twice declares that by 
the grace of God in Christ we are delivered from the 
curse of all sin and unrighteousness, not only of a por- 
tion. The same precious truth is also expressed in 
Ramans viii. 1 : " There is now no condemnation to 
them which are in Christ Jesus." If there were any 
sins remaining from which the blood of Jesus has not 
cleansed the believer, there must also be condemnation 
remaining upon him. We cannot be free from the in- 
evitable effect without being free from the cause. Of 
the same import are the words in Hebrews x. 14: "For 
by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that 
are sanctified." It would overthrow the whole founda- 
tion of our faith to pervert this into the declaration, 
that the sacrifice of Christ perfects those who have been 
previously perfected in holiness; whilst it would, at the 
same time, involve a palpable absurdity. For there is 
no need for perfecting those who are perfected already, 
and there is no need for the sacrifice of Christ if souls 
can be perfected prior to any influences exerted upon 
them by it. Such an interpretation would leave us a 
Christianity without Christ, and thus without grace and 
truth and life. The expression, "them that are sancti- 
fied," evidently means them that are "in Christ Jesus, 
who of God is made unto us#wisdom and righteous- 
ness and sanctification and redemption"; in other words, 
"them that believe on His name." The offering of 
Christ perfects the work of salvation, and those who 
embrace Christ are perfected in Him: if they appro- 
priate Him at all they have a perfect Saviour. "You, 
being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your 
flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having 



140 Justification. 

forgiven you all trespasses; blotting out the handwriting 
of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary 
to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His 
cross." {Col, ii. 13, 14.) It would seem impossible to 
read such passages without prejudice and still find them 
consistent with the notion, that the believing sinner's 
justification is imperfect and approaches its goal only 
gradually. 

This Romish figment is totally at variance with the 
analogy of faith, and can by no art of errorists be 
brought into harmony with it. 

We find it difficult to conceive how, without re- 
nouncing truths which are fundamental in Christianity, 
thoughtful men can assume that the sinner, when he 
has faith in Christ, is partially in grace and partially 
not. It cannot be presumed that the soul is thought 
of as divided into parts, some of which are accepted 
of God, while others are not. The idea is too extra- 
vagant to be imputed to persons of intelligence. And 
it would be no less preposterous to imagine that either 
the soul or the body is an heir of heaven, while one 
or the other is not: we would not impute such a fancy 
to the advocates of gradual justification. The object of 
grace must be the whole man, and the assumption of 
such advocates must be that the grace of God is be- 
stowed upon the sinner but only partially. But that 
would imply that divine grace is : mperiect. The be- 
lieving soul receives what is given, and if it has not 
complete forgiveness of sins and perl eel: righteousness 
in Christ, it is because these were not bestowed in their 
completeness and perfection. If full grace unto justifi- 
cation and salvation be offered, the feebleness with which 
the sinner apprehends it cannot detract from its fullness, 
no more than holding a jewel with a feeble grasp ren- 
ders it imperfect. There is more danger of losing it 



The Means of its Reception. 141 

when it is feebly held ; but it is held entire while it is 

held at all. 

But if God bestows His merits partially, it must be 
either because the redemption through Christ is in- 
complete, so that the justice of God would forbid the 
bestowal of full pardon; or, because divine grace is not 
full and free, so that He does not desire the sinner's 
perfect justification. The former assumption is in direct 
conflict with numberless passages of Scripture, subverts 
the whole plan of salvation, and deprives the sinner of 
all his hopes. For if Christ only partially discharged 
our infinite debt, how shall the infinite balance ever be 
canceled? Christianity would then be as comfortless as 
the other religions of the world, and sinners would have 
nothing to expect but indignation and wrath forevermore. 
But if the latter assumption is adopted, our prospects 
are little brighter. 

Any doctrine which robs the soul of its trust in the 
boundless mercy of its God, in which, conscious of its 
deserts, it alone can find solace, robs it of all joy and 
peace. The Scriptures do not so speak of our merciful 
Father in heaven, who spared not His own Son but 
freely gave Him up for us all, that He might have mercy 
on all. They do not ask us to lean upon the broken 
reed of our own righteousness. They do not point us 
to the filthy rags of our own holiness as a condition of 
receiving a wedding-garment through the mercy of God. 
"But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love 
wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, 
hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are 
saved,) and hath raised us up together, and made us 
sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in 
the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches 
of His grace, in His kindness toward us through Jesus 
Christ." (Epk. ii. 4-7.) The redemption is perfect; the 



142 



Justification. 



grace of God is infinite ; God justifies the sinner perfectly. 
"This is the will of Him that sent Me, that every one 
which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have 
everlasting life." {John vL 4a) 





CHAPTER V. 
ITS EFFECTS. 



IN the great struggle of the XVI. Century called the 
Reformation, great prominence was given to the effect 
upon the soul of the reception of the doctrine of Justi- 
fication by faith alone in the merits of Christ. It was 
plain then, as it is now, that the Roman theory, which 
makes the sinner's justification dependent upon his ceas- 
ing to be a sinner, could not quiet the troubled conscience, 
and that the designed effect of the Gospel could not in 
this way be produced. The experience of many ear- 
nest souls has proved that in humble reliance upon the 
merits of Christ joy and peace could be found. The 
argument from experience would be of no weight and 
value without the Word of God; for this must be re- 
ceived as true, let our experience be what it may. But 
our fathers did well and proceeded logically when they 
laid stress upon the blessed results which flow from the 
sound Biblical doctrine. They did not, as fanatics arc 
wont to do, appeal to their experience against the literal 
sense of divine statements ; but having shown what the 
Bible teaches, they found strong confirmation of the 
truth in the effect which its reception produced, as this 



144 Justification. 

effect was precisely that which the Gospel, according to 

its own statements, was designed to produce. 

The doctrine of Justification, as taught by Luther 
and confessed by the Reformers, was not a philosophical 
speculation in which the heart had no concern. It had, 
under the direction of the Holy Spirit through the divine 
Word, been thoroughly experienced in the life, as it has 
been by millions since, and it has been found to give 
the rest to the soul which is vainly sought under any 
other doctrine. We devote this final chapter to an 
exhibition of those effects, because this furnishes a con- 
firmation of the doctrine which has been presented, and 
also a refutation of the widespread opinion that mis- 
chievous results must ensue upon its adoption. 



Section i. 

IT GIVES THE CONSCIENCE PEACE, 

" Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace 

with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." {Rom. v. i.) 
There can be no peace without this; peace cannot fail 
to dwell in the soul that clings by faith to the Saviour 
for justification. 

When there is a consciousness of sin the conscience 
is troubled. Sin entails misery. Justice is dreaded, as 
punishment is felt to be merited. "There is no peace, 
saith the Lord, unto the wicked." {Isaiah xlviii. 22.) 
"Through fear of death they are all their lifetime subject 
to bondage." {Heb.\\. 15.) Their conscience smites them 
and fills them with terror. "The wicked flee when no 
man pursueth." (Prov. xxviii. 1.) Perceiving their guilt, 
they know death to be their due. It is utterly impos- 
sible to quiet the clamors of an awakened conscience as 



Its Effects. 145 

long as no refuge from the impending wrath is within 
reach. It avails nothing to form the resolution to cease 
from sin. Such resolutions are broken as soon as they 
are formed; they are felt to be futile, — because sin is 
felt in the soul even while amendment is meditated; 
they are clearly perceived to be useless as means to 
atone for iniquities already committed. The criminal, 
upon whom sentence of death has been passed, finds 
the determination to be guilty of no further murders a 
miserable comforter. There could be peace for him only 
in pardon. The terrors of a guilty conscience are not 
to be banished by thoughts of reforming. It is silly to 
think of this. No broken vessel is made whole again 
by the purpose not to break another, even if the pur- 
pose were executed. Those who would console the 
sinner with crudities like this, think lightly of divine 
justice and trifle with immortal souls. Even if they did 
succeed in allaying the inner commotion for a season, 
it would only be to let it gather strength for more violent 
tossings. The first wave that rolls against the cobweb 
curb will wash it away. "They have healed also the 
hurt of the daughter of My people slightly, saying, 
Peace, peace ; when there is no peace. Were they 
ashamed when they had committed abominations? nay, 
they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush ; 
therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the 
time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the 
Lord. Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and 
see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, 
and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls." 
(Jer. vi. 14-16.) 

Only when Christ is embraced by faith as the sure 
foundation that cannot fail us, is the conscience effect- 
ually quieted. There is then no condemnation; and 
although sin be still felt and deplored, the strong con- 
7 k 



1 46 Justification. 

solation abides that the Saviour has died to put away 
sin, aud that for His sake all is pardoned. "Who shall 
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God 
that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth ? It is Christ 
that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even 
at the right-hand of God, who also maketh intercession 
for us." {Rom. viii. 33, 34.) When we have the full 
assurance of faith that the merits of our adored Surety 
and Substitute are imputed to us and all our sins are 
pardoned, we cannot fail to have the peace of God. 
" Ye who sometime were far off are made nigh by the 
blood of Christ; for He is our peace." (Eph. ii. 14.) 
"The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, 
preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (He is Lord of all:) 
that word, I say, ye know." (AEls x. 36, 37.) Believers 
know assuredly that the Father is reconciled through 
the satisfaction rendered by His dear Son, and that 
therefore He will not lay their sins to their charge. 
"For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, 
saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil." 
(fer. xxix. 11.) If we had to seek justification by our 
own works and merits we would be forever in torment, 
as these would never suffice. There can be no justi- 
fication by the deeds of the law. But as the Lord is 
our righteousness, we heed the call which He gives us 
and find His word of promise sure: "Come unto Me, 
all ye that labor and are heavy laden; and I will give 
you rest." (Mat xi. 28.) As surely as God cannot lie, so 
surely can we cling in confidence to the Saviour of the 
world as our Saviour, without a fear that His righteous- 
ness will fail us at the last. "The foundation of God 
standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them 
that are His." {2 Tim. ii. 19.) The Rock of Ages will 
not give way. 

There are many, however, who, while they confess 



Its Effetts. 147 

that the foundation stands sure, still doubt, and teach 
others to doubt, whether the sinner can^ ever be sure 
that he rests upon this foundation. The object of our 
faith is indubitably certain, they say, but the subject is 
not certain. Some even condemn those who teach that 
there can be any certainty of our justified state, and 
pronounce them heretics. This is the position of the 
Romish Church, and some others substantially agree 
with this great enemy of the doctrine of Justification by 
faith alone. Perceiving that a person may confess him- 
self to be a believer and still show by his life that he is 
in a state of condemnation, they mingle the Law and 
the Gospel together, and demand a certain degree of 
holiness as requisite to justification. In this case it is 
evident that doubts must arise in the mind, whether a 
sufficient degree of progress in sanctification has been 
made to entitle the individual to the consolations of the 
Gospel, and peace cannot be found for the soul because 
of such doubts. The error lies in the false conception 
of the ground of our justification. If this were in any 
sense dependent upon our merit or preparation, doubts 
would be natural and necessary, and rest for the soul 
impossible; for doubt and unrest go hand in hand. 

But those who accept the doctrine as the Spirit 
teaches it in the Bible, and as we have endeavored to 
present it, can see no foundation for human uncertain- 
ties and consequent fears in the Scriptural doctrine. The 
redemption of all is a fact. Its appropriation by faith 
is all that is requisite to enjoy it. Unbelief can have 
no peace, because it rejects the fact; faith cannot be 
deprived of peace, because it accepts the fact. The 
believer, so far as he actually has faith, has assurance: 
he accepts the Gospel statements as certain. When 
God makes the declaration, Thy sins are forgiven thee, 
we may deprive ourselves of the joy which the divine 



148 Justification. 

word is designed to give us, by affixing conditions of our 

own invention and then inferring that our sins are not 
forgiven because we have not fulfilled the self-imposed 
conditions. We destroy our peace and rob ourselves of 
comfort most wantonly. But the fault lies not in the 
divine declaration, but in our refusal to accept that de- 
claration just as it was given. We have no peace because 
we have no faith. The false doctrine, which forbids 
assurance on the ground of the gracious word of God, 
prevents assurance. There is nothing in the divine Word 
itself to prevent it. There are no demands made upon 
us which, on account of our sinfulness and weakness, 
forbid its existence in our souls. The word which de- 
clares us just is sure, resting upon the sure ground of 
the finished redemption; and if we believe it we have 
assurance and have a right "to have it. It is the Evil 
that suggests doubts by suggesting conditions which God 
has never made. He is a liar, and by his lies he seeks 
to introduce into our souls doubts of the truth of God's 
word, and thus to prevent assurance of our justification 
through faith, and peace with God. Men may doubt, 
but they have no reason to doubt; and those who teach 
that they ought to doubt, corrupt the Word of God and 
rob the souls of the peace which our Saviour graciously 
secured. Those who believe the Bible doctrine of jus- 
tification hold it to be a sin to doubt, and pray God to 
increase their faith, that Satan may not despoil them of 
their happy assurance. They know that although they 
are worthless, the blood of Jesus was shed for them and 
avails for their justification. They know that nothing 
is required but faith to render them heirs of heaven 
through Christ, and they therefore guard chiefly against 
the false doctrines which would undermine their faith, 
deprive them of their assurance, and rob them of the 
peace which they have in believing. 



Its Ejfetts. 149 

" Let us therefore give thanks unto God,*' says Luther, 

"that we are delivered from this monstrous doctrine of 
doubting, and can now assure ourselves that the Holv 
Ghost crieth, and bringeth forth in our hearts unspeak 
able groanings, and this is our anchor-hold and our 
foundation. The Gospel commandeth us to behold not 
our own good works, our own perfection; but God the 
Promiser, and Christ the Mediator. On the other hand, 
the pope commandeth us to look not unto God the 
Promiser, nor unto Christ our High Bishop, but unto 
our works and merits. Here, on the one side, doubt- 
ing and desperation must needs follow ; but, on the other 
side, assurance of God's favor and joy of the spirit. 
For we cleave unto God, who cannot lie. He saith: 
Behold, I deliver my Son to death, that through His 
blood He may redeem thee from thy sins and from 
eternal, death. In this case I cannot doubt, unless I 
would utterly deny God. And this is the reason that 
our doctrine is most sure and certain, because it carrieth 
us out of ourselves, that we should not lean on our 
own strength, our own conscience, our own feeling, our 
own person, and our own works; but on that which is 
without us — that is to say, the promise and truth of 
God, which cannot deceive us. This the pope knoweth 
not, and therefore he wickedly imagineth that no man 
knoweth, be he never so just or so wise, whether he be 
worthy of love or of hatred. But if he be just and 
wise,. he knoweth assuredly that he is beloved of God, 
or else he is neither just nor wise. ..... The pope, 

therefore, with this devilish doctrine, whereby he com- 
manded men to doubt of the favor of God towards them, 
took away God and all His promises out of the Church, 
buried all the benefits of Christ, and abolished the whole 
Gospel. These inconveniences do necessarily follow ; for 
men do not lean on the promises of God, but on their 



150 y testification. 

own works and merits. Therefore they cannot be assured 

of the good-will of God towards them, but ' must needs 
doubt thereof, and so at length 'despair. No man can 
understand what God's will is, and what pleaseth Him, 
but in His good Word. This Word assureth us that 
God cast away all the anger and displeasure which He 
had conceived against us, when He gave His only-be- 
gotten Son for our sins. Wherefore, let us wholly aban- 
don this devilish doubting, wherewith the whole papacy 
was poisoned, and let us be fully assured that God is 
merciful unto us." 

The peace which we feel in believing must not be 
made the ground or condition of our justification. It 
would seem superfluous to add this caution against a 
procedure that is so absurd, were it not that many are 
actually guilty of the strange absurdity, and thus rob 
themselves of all peace by leaving it without a foundation. 
They saw off the limb upon which they sit. Supposing 
themselves justified because they have peace, and con- 
sidering this the only satisfactory reason for thinking 
themselves justified at all, they set aside the only evi- 
dence upon which the soul can have assurance — namely, 
that of the Word — and trust in effects, which are not uni- 
form, and the testimony of which is therefore precarious. 

If a person has faith in Christ, he is justified, and, 
knowing himself to be justified, he has peace and joy. 
But if this peace and this joy are necessary before he 
can know himself to be justified, whence is he to derive 
them? If we have peace upon any other ground than 
that of the redemption through Christ and the forgiveness 
of sin for His sake as conveyed to us in the word of 
the Gospel, we have a false peace, which proves nothing 
but that we have been deceiving ourselves. If we have 
peace upon this only true ground of the redemption 
appropriated by faith, this peace is, in our consciousness, 



Its Effefts. 151 

a result of our assurance that we are justified, — not a 
ground upon which that assurance rests. The error 
of resting our justification, or the assurance of it, upon 
such internal effects of faith in the great fact of the 
redemption, is destructive of that very peace which jus- 
tification secures. It is not only the fact that our feelings 
change, and are thus unreliable as evidences of the estab- 
lished relation of the soul to God, which renders the 
evidence of feeling so precarious. Even if there were 
no variations in the sense of peace, even if it were felt 
by all persons and at all times alike, it would be radi- 
cally wrong to take this effect of the assurance of faith 
as the proof of the objective reality to which faith clings. 
The soul is justified not because it feels so, or because 
it feels the peace which results from the fact that it is 
sure of being so, but because the Word of God proclaims 
the fact, and faith apprehends it. The sweet feelings 
which believers enjoy may, where Satan succeeds in 
luring the soul to put its trust in them rather than in 
the promise of God, prove to the unwary an occasion 
of falling from grace. 

The doctrine of Justification by faith finds a strong 
confirmation in the experience of believers; but never 
can it be made to rest upon such experience. If a per- 
son believes it only upon this ground, he does not 
believe at all, and all his pretended peace is a mere 
delusion ; for only that is faith which clings to the word 
and promise of God, be the feelings what they may. 
God is good, whether we feel good or not; and Christ 
died for our sins and secured our pardon, whether we 
rejoice in the hope of glory or not; and the facts as 
announced in the Gospel we are to believe on the testi- 
mony of God. All that experience can do is to add 
its confirmation to the truth, which, except to our infir- 
mity, needs no confirmation. 



152 Justification. 

Our fathers referred frequently to the soothing effect 
of the Scriptural doctrine of justification upon the be- 
liever's soul, as against the disheartening effect of the 
false doctrine of the Romish Church, which cuts off even 
the possibility of obtaining the peace which Christ came 
to bring; but never did they dream of reversing the 
order, after the manner of fanatics, in which justification 
by faith and peace with God stand to each other. A 
doctrine that allows of no peace to the soul must be 
false. The true doctrine must bring peace. But there 
may be a false peace, and the only way to secure true 
peace is to believe the declaration made to us that our 
sins are forgiven. The peace in our hearts is neithei 
the cause of our justification, nor the cause of our assur- 
ance that such justification is ours : the cause of it is 
the grace of God in Christ, and the cause of our assur- 
ance is the divine announcement which faith embraces. 
But this peace is a blessed effect which grows out of 
the assurance of faith, and which gives us cheer in the 
rough journey of life. "Peace I leave with you," our 
loving Lord declares; "My peace I give unto you; not 
as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your 
heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." (John xiv. 27.) 
And this peace is ours through faith in His name, who 
is our peace. There is no peace to those who are with- 
out Christ; there is no peace to those who trust in their 
own possessions or performances, even though they cry 
peace; there is peace only in the Prince of peace: "be- 
ing justified by faith, we have peace with God through 
our Lord Jesus Christ" 



Its Effects. 153 



Section 2. 

IT SECURES SANCTIFICATIOM. 

Nothing has been more frequently urged against 
the precious doctrine of Justification by faith than this, 
that it renders sinners carnally secure, instills a false 
peace, deprives them of all motives for activity in good 
works, and renders the Church an assembly of careless 
idlers and dissolute sensualists, who care nothing about 
holiness because it is not necessary to salvation; and 
nothing could be more erroneous, or indicate greater 
ignorance of the doctrine to which the objection is 
made. 

It certainly is true that the sinner is not justified by 
the deeds of the law; and it is, therefore, true also that 
the hope of obtaining salvation through the merit of 
good works cannot, by those who hold the Bible doc- 
trine of justification by faith, be a motive to their per- 
formance. If there were no other motive to pursue 
holiness than this servile one of desiring to render God 
our debtor, against whom we would have a rjght to 
present our claim on the judgment-day, it would be true 
that we who believe in Christ that we might be justified 
by faith, have no motive to live righteously and godly 
and soberly in this present world. But that there is no 
power but selfishness to move us in the way of godli- 
ness, that nothing can impel Christians to walk worthy 
of God but the hope of obtaining wages for their service, 
only those can maintain who have not yet been blessed 
with a clear view of the economy of grace and a happy 
experience of its beneficent provisions. 

We might appeal, in answer to the Objections made 
and in proof of the salutary effect of the doctrine in 

7* 



154 Justification. 

this regard, to the activity and zeal and self-denying 
labors of the early Church, in which the pure doctrine 
as the Bible teaches it was universally received and 
everywhere practically applied; we might point to the 
work of the individuals and parties who, when the errors 
of Rome had spread their enervating poison over the 
greater portion of Christendom, continued in the apostles' 
doctrine and fellowship and were fervent in spirit, serv- 
ing the Lord; we might refer to the mighty men of the 
Reformation, and to the work of the Church in which 
that Reformation was wrought, the abundant labors and 
sufferings of three and a half centuries bearing witness 
before all people to the effect of the doctrine upon the 
life of believers ; and no one could complain of unfair- 
ness in the method of argumentation. Let history de- 
cide whether these things be so. But we deem it suf- 
ficient merely to suggest this line of argument, that the 
mouths of those who know not what they say may be 
silenced — millions of witnesses testifying against them. 
Our object her.e is rather to explain the doctrine by 
showing what its effect must be in practical life. 

The natural man hates God and His will. If any 
effort js made to perform His commandments, it is not 
because the heart is in coincidence with the divine law, 
but because punishment is dreaded. " They that are after 
the flesh do mind the things of the flesh ; but they that 
are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be 
carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded 
is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity 
against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, 
neither indeed can be." {Rom, viii. 5-7.) External con- 
formity is the most that it can accomplish, and this is 
very imperfect. But external conformity is not fulfill- 
ment of the law and is not holiness ; the heart remains at 
enmity with God notwithstanding all endeavors to comply 



Its Effetts. 155 

with the requirements of the law. The servile motive 
furnished by the fear of punishment never can produce 
true holiness; it can do so just as little in Romanism 
and other sectarian systems of the present day as it 
could in Judaism. A motive more effectual is offered 
where the doctrine of justification by free grace in Christ 
is apprehended in faith. "For God hath not given us 
the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a 
sound mind." {2 Tim. i. 7.) 

Faith in the atonement made by our Saviour makes 
all things new. God ceases to appear to our souls as 
an angry tyrant, who gives laws which it is impossible 
for us to obey, and who punishes all our disobedience. 
He ceases to be a hateful object, because His love be- 
comes manifest. Our impulse before was to hide our- 
selves from His terrible presence, but now is to seek 
His loving face. His wrath, is averted, and the light of 
His countenance shines upon us in grace and mercy. 
He now seems what He really is, the fountain of every 
blessing and the God of all consolation. . All slavish fear 
is removed, and with the confidence of children we cry, 
Abba, Father! Christ has purchased us with His own 
precious blood and rendered full satisfaction to the right- 
eousness of God for us; this we believe, and in this we 
are glad. In the strength of this faith we now offer our 
service with a free and cheerful heart, loving God be- 
cause He first loved us. "Blessing, and honor, and 
glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the 
throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." 

Not the hope of meriting life and wresting, as it were, 
a crown of glory from the unwilling hands of Jehovah, 
but gratitude for grace and every blessing mercifully 
bestowed upon us in measures beyond all we could ask 
or think, is the motive which prompts us to praise His 
glorious name, with all our powers, in word and work. 



156 Justification. 

This, too, is the powerful motive which the Gospel pre- 
sents. It does not tell us to work that God may be 
gracious to us; but to be in labors abundant because 
He has been gracious to us and is gracious now. "As 
ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so 
walk ye in Him: rooted and built up in Him, and 
established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abound- 
ing therein with thanksgiving." {Col. ii. 6, 7.) Christians 
are an active people in all holiness, because the love of 
Christ constraineth them. "For we are His workman- 
ship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which 
God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." 
(Eph. ii. 10.) Those are to be pitied who can find in 
this no motive to an energetic prosecution of the work 
of the Lord, and no power for consecration to His 
blessed service; who can conceive of no effort to do 
His pleasure except by coercion; who can think of no 
other effect produced by the believing recognition of 
Jesus' work and passion for the salvation of our souls, 
than that we become idlers who despise His gracious 
will and treat His love with scorn. Let them but come 
to Jesus and see! This would give them a better con- 
ception of the nature and power of that faith which 
clings to the dear Redeemer and finds every joy in 
Him. 

Luther, who apprehended and taught tlje doctrine 
of Justification by faith alone, without the deeds of the 
law, with a clearness and a power that has never been 
equaled since, says with reference to this point: " Faith 
is not the human fancy and dream which some call 
faith. When they perceive that people may hear and 
say much about faith, and still it is not followed by 
amendment of life and good works, they erroneously 
conclude that faith is not sufficient, but that good works 
are also necessary to justification and salvation. The 



Its Effects 157 

reason of this is, that, when they hear the Gospel, they, 
by their own power, form an opinion which they ex- 
press in the words ' I believe,' and this they hold to be 
true faith. But as this is a human notion and figment 
which the heart never experiences, it accomplishes noth- 
ing and is followed by no amendment. Faith, however, 
is a divine work in us which changes the heart and 
through which we are born of God. {John i. 13.) It 
destroys the old Adam, makes us new creatures in 
heart, soul, sense, and all our powers, and brings with 
it the Holy Spirit. Oh, faith is a living, busy, active, 
mighty power; it is impossible for it not to be incessantly 
doing good. Nor does it ask whether good works must 
be done: before tne question is asked it has done them, 
and is perpetually doing them. He who does not per- 
form such works has no faith, who stumbles about in 
quest of laith and good works, but knows not what 
faith is nor what good works are, much as he prates 
and prattles about them. Faith is a living, inflexible 
trust in the grace of God, so certain that it would face 
a thousand deaths. And this knowledge of divine grace 
and confidence in it renders us joyous, and bold, and 
cheerful towards God and all creatures, which is the 
work of the Holy Ghost by faith. Hence man becomes 
willing and eager to do good to every person, to serve 
every one, to suffer everything, for the pleasure and 
glory of God, who has given him such grace. Thus it is 
as impossible to separate works from faith as to separate 
light and heat in flames. Therefore beware of your own 
erring thoughts, and of vain babblers, who profess to be 
wise in judging of faith and works, but who are the 
greatest fools. Pray God that He may work faith in 
you ; otherwise you will forever remain without faith, do 
and fancy what you may." 

True, living faith in the redemption, which appro- 



158 Justified Hon. 

priates the full merits of Christ and gives the soul joy 
and peace, sanctifies the soul, as it never can be sanctified 
under any system that rejects justification by faith. 



Section 3. 

IT RENDERS GLORY TO GOD. 

No doctrine of Justification that has ever been taught 
so completely and so exclusively gives the glory of man's 
salvation to God as that which forms the great material 
principle of the Reformation. All others ascribe some 
merit and some praise to men ; and in proportion as they 
glorify the creature do they detract from the glory of the 
Saviour, without whom we can do nothing. "Where is 
boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? 
Nay, but by the law of faith." (Rom. iii. 27.) 

The end of man's creation and preservation, of his 
redemption and sanctification, is the glory of the Creator 
and Redeemer. For this all things were made.- " Thou 
art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and 
power; for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy 
pleasure they are and were created." {Rev. iv. 11.) Any 
doctrine that derogates from this glory which belongs to 
Him, or would divide it with the sinful creature, must 
on that account be false. The whole work of grace 
necessarily tends to His glory. "Glory to God in the 
highest" was the song of the angels when Jesus was 
born; and the Church of the Redeemer never ceases to 
say: "Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding 
abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to 
the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the 
Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world with- 
out end. Amen." 



Its Effetts. 159 

Justification brings peace to the soul. But this peace 
does not exalt the individual who possesses it. He can- 
not have it without clinging to Jesus as its only ground 
and cause. But faith in the Saviour as its source is in- 
compatible with that proud self-complacency which bases 
all upon personal exertions and merits. He is our peace. 
There can be no justification without recognizing this, 
and where this is recognized there, can be no ascription 
of honor to self as though peace were a product of 
nature and not of grace. 

Justification renders us active in good works. But 
these works of the law contribute nothing to justification 
and secure for us no merit. They do not exist before 
the faith which appropriates the righteousness of Christ, 
and have nothing to do with this appropriation, of which* 
they are effects, — in no sense grounds or causes. The 
works are necessary; but their necessity is not that of 
aids to justification. The glory of all our works, as well 
as the glory of all from which these works proceed, be- 
longs to God alone, and is seen by the justified person 
to belong to God alone. As he ascribes all the praise of 
his justification to the Lord our Righteousness, so he 
performs all his works for His glory, according to the 
divine will as expressed by St. Paul : " Whether therefore 
ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory 
of God," (/ Cor. x. 31,) and, "Whatsoever ye do, in 
word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, 
giving thanks to God and the Father by Him." (Col. iii. 
17.) True faith, which apprehends the forgiveness of 
sins as offered freely through the means of grace, ren- 
ders the believer active in the work of the Lord, that 
God may be glorified by his life and labors, and prompts 
him, at the same time, to give God all the glory, because 
to Him all is seen to be due. 

Justification insures salvation; for where there is for- 



160 Justification. 

giveness 01 sins there of course is also life and salvation. 
.But as justification is wholly an act of God's grace for 
Christ's sake, there can be glory ascribed to no other 
tnan to Him. For they have fallen from grace who 
would be justified and saved by the deeds of the law: 
Christ is become of no effect to them. Salvation is found 
in Jesus only. Those who seek it elsewhere, so as to 
give the praise to another, never find it. Those who 
find it in Jesus are grateful, and give the glory to Him 
alone. 

What is recorded of the father of the faithful is appli- 
cable, though it be not in the same degree, to all believ- 
ers : " He staggered not at the promise of God through 
unbelief; but was strong in the faith, giving glory to 
God." (Rom. iv. 20.) The Reformers declare, in the 
Abology of the Augsburg Confession, ' and repeat the 
saying in various torms at other places: "The honor 
which is due to Christ we must not give to the law or 
to our miserable works." The true believer has no de- 
sire to do this. Any doctrine which teaches him to do 
it is condemned by this very fact, and all who are jealous 
for t he honor of their blessed Lord should unite in de- 
nouncing it and warning against it. c 'God forbid that I 
should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." 
{Gal. vi. 14.) 

The pure doctrine of justification makes the soul 
humble; for we are conscious of deserving nothing but 
condemnation, and of having all by the grace of God 
through Jesus Christ. But while we decrease, Christ in- 
creases. It humbles us to exalt our Saviour. It gives 
constant py and peace, and supplies the motive, in 
gratitude, to consecrate our all to Him. "Thanks be 
to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord 
Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye 
steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of 



Its Effetts. 



161 



the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not 
in vain in the Lord." (z Cor. xv. 57, 58.) Those who 
hold and experience, the truth of the precious doctrine 
never weary in His praise. They live not unto them- 
selves, but unto Him who died for us and rose again, 
" that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus 
Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and 
ever. Amen." (/ Peter iv. 11.) 





CONCLUSION. 



'"T^HE doctrine which has been set forth is precious 
JL beyond the powers of language to describe. It 
is the great central truth of Christianity, which is the 
only true religion, and which manifests itself as such 
by giving " knowledge of salvation unto His people by 
the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy 
of our God, whereby the dayspring from on high hath 
visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness 
and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the 
way of peace." (Luke i. 77-79.) It is the glory of the 
Evangelical Lutheran Church, whose single aim always 
was and is and shall be to honor her Lord and save 
the souls purchased by His own dear blood. 

Nor should we flatter ourselves that the energy and 
zeal with which the Church proclaimed this cardinal 
doctrine in the days of the Reformation are needless 
now, when Protestantism has gained so firm a foothold 
in the world and is cherished by so many millions of 
enlightened people. It is the article against which the 
great foe of human happiness directs his craft and 
power as persistently as ever. The truth shah stand, 
in spite of every effort that is made to overthrow it. 
The foundation of God standeth sure ; the word of the 



Conclusion. 163 

Lord abideth forever. But many are misled, and while 
the doctrine stands, and must stand, many have fallen 
and many are in daily peril of falling. Therefore, the 
love of Christ and of the souls which He has re- 
deemed should constrain us to study it and teach it 
unweariedly, that what lies in our power may be done 
to extend the peace and comfort and everlasting salva- 
tion which it brings, and preserve it to men until the 
latest generations. 

Of such efforts there is all the more need, because 
many who claim to be children of the Reformation 
have either abandoned it or permitted its glory to be- 
come dim. It is at once a pleasant and a painful task 
to declare that the Evangelical Lutheran Church alone 
retains it in its purity and power. We record it with 
joyous gratitude to God, that He has preserved the 
blessed light of the Gospel in our Lutheran Church, 
so that, through her teaching and confessing, men may 
learn with certainty the way of salvation and find peace 
unto their souls. But we perceive with grief that doc- 
trines are taught in other churches which conflict, with 
the simple evangelical plan of salvation through faith 
in Christ alone, and which render it more or less diffi- 
cult to find the way to heaven. Not only does the 
Romish Church continue her wicked warfare against 
the Gospel, but the Romish leaven has pervaded Prot- 
estant denominations, to a greater or less extent, all 
around us. When it is taught, for instance, that the 
sin innate in man is not sin, or does not subject to 
condemnation; that the redemption is accomplished for 
only an elect: portion of our race; that faith avails for 
our salvation only by being active in good works; that 
the word of absolution becomes effectual only through 
man's repentance or amendment; that Baptism and the 
Lord's Supper cannot convey remission of sin, but that 



164 Justification. 

this is dependent upon a certain degree of holiness at- 
tained; that man must seek peace in his sanctifi cation ; 
that perfect holiness is attainable on earth, and that 
only those who have attained it have the full comfort 
of the Gospel; that no one can be certain of the truth 
revealed unto salvation in the Scriptures; that our pious 
feelings are the criteria of our adoption as God's chil- 
dren; — when such and similar opinions are taught as 
the Gospel of Christ, the influence of Romanism, with 
its anti-evangelical spirit, is plain to every eye which 
the grace of God has enabled to see clearly. Thera 
is no doctrine whose renewed study is more needful 
now than that of Justification by faith alone. Our dear 
Redeemer, grant that its power may become more man- 
ifest in the consecrated lives and the triumphant deaths 
of Christian people! 

O Christ, Thou Lamb of God that takest away the 
sins of the world, grant us Thy peace. 




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